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QUEEN* MARGUERITE. 



Front. 



ROYAL GIRLS 



AND ROYAL COURTS 



BY 

MRS M E W SHERWOOD 

Author of 
A Transplanted Rose 
Amenities of Social Life 
and others 



fif 



WITH TWELVE PORTRAITS 









nov 10 mj L 



WASH'S* 



BOSTON 
D LOTHROP COMPANY 

FRANKLIN AND HAW LEY STREETS 



3 






B Y 

D. Lothrop Company. 



CONTENTS, 



I. At the Italian Court . 

II. The Queen of Italy 

III. The Spanish Court 

IV. The Empress Elizabeth of Austria 
V. "Carmen Sylva," Queen of Roumania 

VI. The "Lilies of France" 

VII. The Royal Girls of Denmark . 

VIII. Russian Royal Girls 

IX. Royal Girls of England 

X. Those Royal Girls at Sandringham 

XI. Some Royal Girls of Germany . 

XII. Two Royal Widows 



P. GE. 

9 
33 
49 
70 
88 
114 
127 

145 

164 
185 
205 
219 



ROYAL GIRLS AND 
ROYAL COURTS. 



I. 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 



EDWARD EVERETT, who commanded so 
much respect in England, not only for his 
great learning and talents, but for the elegance 
of his manners, was once asked by an American, 
how he had so mastered the detail of European 
etiquette. His answer was a significant one : 

" I have never considered any subject which 
other people respect as unworthy of intense obser- 
vation. I pride myself on the manner even in 
which I tie up a brown paper parcel. I study the 
etiquette of every country." 

Our republicanism will become more genuine 
9 



" 



IO ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

when it realizes that a proper attention to eti- 
quette is at once elegant, simple, proper, and dig- 
nified, and that it should extend over our country 
from the extremest limits of civilization to the 
great cities and the little villages. It need not be 
observance of old world ceremonials, although we 
should learn enough of them not to offend if we 
visit a monarch on his own ground ; but it should 
be that becoming courtesy, which will at home and 
abroad ornament and improve a society which has 
already so much to commend it and which may 
have the most splendid future. 

The best American girl is interested everywhere 
in the best way of doing everything. A girl with 
self-respect is always willing to learn. The truly 
well-bred girls of America, with charming man- 
ners expressive of a good heart, a careful educa- 
tion, and a proper desire to please — and their 
name is legion — should not be injured even in 
that large general classification " American " by 
the bad-manners of a few ; yet they have to suffer 
for the ill-bred. American girls have no excuse 
for not being the best-bred girls in the world, for 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. II 

they are remarkably clever. We must permit our- 
selves the national vanity of claiming that the native 
purity, quick intelligence, apprehension of the 
necessities of a new position, and in some instances 
the intuitions of elegance, are, in our young country- 
women, quite miraculous, as contrasted with the 
slower mind of the German, for instance. 

The wife of an American Minister at Berlin had 
occasion to notice this difference. " A young Ger- 
man countess," said she, "will arrive at Berlin 
from her secluded chateau, and she will be intro- 
duced at court, with all the honors. She will be 
awkward, embarrassed, gauche, for the whole win- 
ter. A young American girl will be introduced, 
fresh from some Western city, or some New Eng- 
land town, and she will be at her ease and mistress 
of etiquette in a month. She will charm every- 
body by her wit, her lively repartee, and her clever- 
ness." 

How fortunate would be the reputation of young 
American girls abroad were this opinion universal. 
No " Daisy Miller " need then have been written. 
But unluckily there is a reverse to the medal. 



12 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Most American ministers have a private entry in 
their journals which would read differently. Per- 
haps a sketch of something which occurred several 
years ago at Rome, will harm nobody. 

" What do you mean by the words ' loud ' and 
' bouncing ' as applied to a young girl ? " asked a 
Roman Princess, of an American, of whom she was 
learning English. " I met some rather pretty 
American girls yesterday, and they did seem viva- 
cious, but another American lady said to me, ' Gh ! 
we do not consider those of good style ; those girls 
are too ' loud and bouncing,' now what did she 
mean ? " 

It was a difficult question for the teacher to 
answer. When she learned who the " rather pretty 
young Americans " were, she knew they were 
blessed with good looks, handsome fortune, intel- 
ligence, and a great appetite, for sight-seeing. 
They went about with their Murray and Baedeker, 
and Hare's Walks in Rome tucked under their 
arms from morning until night. They would go to 
the Coliseum, and recite Manfred by the hour, 
they could play on the banjo, and sing negro melo- 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 13 

dies, they were in the habit of writing notes to 
gentlemen, and asking them to call for them to 
walk or drive, to go to Trascati, or Tivoli. They 
would walk alone in the streets of Rome, and after- 
wards complain that the Italian gentlemen would 
whisper compliments in their ears. They talked 
and laughed aloud at the opera while the tenor 
was singing his best morceau, to the intense indig- 
nation of the music-loving Italians. They laughed 
too much and did a thousand things which brought 
them into disagreeable conspicuousness. And one 
of them was destined never to improve, for she had 
no power of assimilating what might be taught her, 
even by that bitter teacher Experience. 

So the American lady could only answer, " For- 
tunately, Madame la Princesse, you have no 
equivalent in your language for the terms, ' loud ' 
and ' bouncing , ' but if you observe these girls in 
society, I fear you will grow to understand what 
*he words mean with people of more quiet style." 

Of these three girls, whom we shall call the 
Misses Stuart, we may assume that they repre- 
sented three well-known types of the American 



14 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

girl in Europe. Semiramide, the eldest, delighted 
in the reputation of being " loud and bouncing," 
for in the somewhat gossiping society of Rome, this 
anecdote soon crept around to the three sisters. 

The second sister, Clementine, felt pained at 
the reproof conveyed, and was angry at the 
averted looks, and would have been glad to as- 
sume a more popular manner. She had too much 
egotism to believe herself in the wrong. She had 
no idea wherein they offended. If she ever ac- 
quires manners they will be but a veneering. 

The third sister, Euphrosyne, was of finer 
mould. She felt that they were wrong, vulgar, and 
underbred. She determined to observe wherein 
their manners differed from the refined people 
about her. Her type is, unfortunately, the least 
common one. Semiramide did not object to be 
stared at, did not care for criticism, considered 
her manners as one form of independence, had a 
native vulgarity within her. Clementine was a 
chameleon and took her color from her elder 
sister ; less forcible and less pronounced, she had 
a clearer eve to the advantages of good manners, 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 1 5 

and so might improve. Euphrosyne, alone, had a 

chance at that 

repose 

Which marks the caste of Vere de Vere. 

Of course they desired, of all things, to be pre- 
sented at Court, to see that gentle and lovely 
Queen whose manners and breeding command the 
admiration of Europe, the woman whom all nations 
call simpatica. It is to be worth while, after we 
have seen what happened to our three sisters, to 
follow up the early education of Marguerite of 
Savoy to learn how she has attained not only 
culture of the highest, but manners of the sweet- 
est ; not only the reading of a scholar, but the 
grace of an unspoiled beauty ; to learn how she 
has earned as she has the admiration of the world. 

It was the elder sister who applied for the right 
of presentation. This she did in a most aggressive 
manner. She wrote to the American Minister : 

My Dear Sir: 

I and my sisters desire to be presented to the Queen at 
the next drawing-room. We do not ask this as z. favor, we 
demand it as a right. Our Hotel is the Kussie, where we 



1 6 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

should be pleased to hear from you, and any attentions 
which you may show to us, as Americans, we should gladly 
receive. That is, I suppose, what an American minister is 
sent abroad for — to attend to his countrypeople (although 
to me it appears that they are generally enjoying them- 
selves). My father is a great friend of the President and 
my uncle is a Senator. Yours respectfully, 

Semiramide Stuart. 

" There!" said she, when she had finished this 
letter, " I hope that will give him a hint to invite 
us to his next ball, and teach him his duty. If it 
does not, I'll report him at home as one who cul- 
tivates the Italian Princes and does not attend to 
his country people." 

" Would it not be better to — to ask it as a 
favor ? " said Clementine. 

" No," said Semiramide, " I shall ask it as my 
right." 

" They say," said Euphrosyne, the third sister, 
" they say we should leave cards on his wife, and 
suggest that we should like to be presented if his 
list is not full. 

" I shall do nothing of the kind," said Semira- 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 1 7 

mide. " I am a girl of spirit, and if he does not 
behave politely to us, I will write a letter to the 
newspapers. And I can get presented, anyway, 
through Madame Figliocarno; she has promised 
me." 

Unfortunately, there is many a Madame Figlio- 
carno, in Europe — impecunious, well-born, unscrup- 
ulous women, who have through some mysterious 
network the entrance to courts — and who for a 
few dinners, drives, and possibly other favors, will 
advance an underbred visitor to the object she 
may desire. 

Mr. Comet, the American Minister, had had 
already one hundred and two applications to 
present people to the Queen, for the first draw- 
ing-room, and he had only one dozen " permessos " 
— how to fit one hundred and two into twelve 
was beyond his arithmetic ; and he wrote this 
fact apologetically to " Miss S. Stuart." She in- 
dignantly wrote an account of his bad conduct to 
the Indiana Free Thinker, and, telling her woes to 
Madame Figliocarno, she and her sisters soon 
received a note marked " Casa di S. M. la Regina" 



1 8 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

informing them that they would be received " at 
circolo di corte* che' avra luogo a sera del 3 1 Gennaio, 
con te alleoix 9 1-2 La Dama d'onore, Marchesa di 
Villamarma, Abito Scollato;" in other words, the 
lady of honor informs these young aspirants that 
they will be received at the Quirinal at the court 
circle (or the drawing-room), at half-past nine, on 
the evening of the thirty-first of January, and that 
they must wear low-necked dress. 

The thoughts of Semiramide on receiving this 
"flermesso" were of the most triumphant description. 
She dressed her extremely handsome person with 
great care, and expected to strike the Queen favor- 
ably. She was indignant at being told that she 
must take her card with her to show to the Cham- 
berlain, Prince Vicovara Cenci ; so it was given to 
Euphrosyne, who did not disdain the task. 

The three sisters, on a certain Saturday even- 
ing, found themselves in a brilliantly illuminated 
court-yard, with a broad door opening on a splen- 
did staircase which was ornamented with statues, 
and covered with a scarlet carpet. The innumer- 
able servants in scarlet, looked like a procession 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 21 

of cardinal flowers. They ascended about sixty 
steps, when they reached the grand Hall of the 
Quirinal palace, at the door of which stood the 
Prince Vicovara, in a blue coat and brass buttons, 
with orders in his button -hole, and with a paper 
covered with signatures in his hand. He looked 
not unadmiringly on the three tall distingue young 
Americans, whose rich red cheeks, dashing eyes, 
fair white necks, and abundant hair betrayed their 
nationality — " the handsomest women in the 
world," he thinks. "Your names, please?" he 
asked. 

liramide's voice made him start as she said 
"We are presented by Madame Figliocarno." 

Euphrosyne stepped forward and gave him their 
names, and their card of invitation. He bowed 
low die is a very handsome Italian cavalier) and 
motioning them into the grand reception-room, 1 e 
presented them to the Queen's favorite lady, and 
dear friend, the Marchesa di Yillamarina. 

The Marchesa received them kindly, almost 
cordially, and asked them to go to the end of the 
room and stand with their compatriots. 



22 ROYAI. GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

" I would rather stand right here ; I detest 
Ameri< ans," said Semiramide, in a derided voice. 

The Marchesa gave a little start, looked at her 
long and searchingly. a look which even penetrated 
the armor of invincible self-conceit. As Clemen- 
tina and Euphrosyne had by this time, covered 
with shame and confusion, -one half across the 
room, and the Marchesa had turned to speak to 
ether guesfs, Srmiramide moved on, somewhat 
sulkily, after her sisters. 

The -reat room of the Quirinal, where presenta- 
tions take place, is hung with priceless tapestries, 
pictures and mirrors framed in gold, the carpet is 
of scarlet velvet, and the furniture covered with 
pale bine brocade. The three yam-- sisters had 
enough to look at, before a slight stir at tire door, 
and the rising of certain ladies ( Americans, by 
the way ) told them that the Queen had entered. 
A short figure, exquisitely graceful, a profusion of 
beautiful hair, a smile at once amiable and dis- 
tinguished, a deprecatory motion of the head, as if 
Marguerite of Savoy would get rid of her greatness 
it she could — as all rise and curtesy — that was 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 23 

all. The Marchesa di Villamarina names each 
lady to her — "The Princesses Vicovara Cenci and 
Brancaccio." The Queen says something appro- 
priate and graceful to each one, and addresses each 
person in her own language, as the}- stand still 
while she walks on. When Her Majesty reached 
our group cf sisters, Euphrosyne happened to ci une 
first, and to her she greetingly said, " Do you like 
dancing ? I am sure you do ! you look very young ! 
Do you like music? Yes ? You are taking lessons 
in Koine? I know so good a teacher!" — to all 
of which Euphrosyne replied gracefully and well. 
Queen Marguerite had a pleasant speech for every 
one in the room, her voice was low ami sweet, her 
manner mosl flattering. As she reached the elder 
sister it SO happened that Semiramide, who had 
some '"smart" things to say, received less of her 
conversation than the others, a fact which she com- 
plained of in an audible voice, as the Queen had 
advanced to the other side of the room. The Mar- 
chesa di Villamarina gave a look back, which again 
acted like a charm, and fortunately silenced her. 
This presentation was followed by an invitation 



24 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

to the Court Ball on the following Tuesday. The 

girls had been told to leave cards on the Marchesa 
di Villamarina at the Quirinal, and had in due time 

received their three grand cards of invitation. 
Madame Figliocarno called for them .it half-past 
nine, precisely, and was vehement in praise of their 

dresses, for it must be admitted that our young 
Americans, generally, dress in ver iste. 

»urt ball is by far the finest .spectacle which 
is presented to the visitor in Rome. It is in a 
magnificent hall room — the throne room — a large 
well-proportioned apartment, with a raised gallery 
for musicians at one end. 

Two chairs surmounted with crowns stand on an 
elevated dais, over which ha; jnificenl can- 

opy, embroidered with the royal arm- of Savoy, 
and the monogram of the King and Queen. 

And now to understand' what followed the 
reader is requested to mark carefully this arrange- 
ment of the royal party: At the right of the 
Queen's chair extend sofas, which are to be filled 
by the Ambassadrices behind her, seats for her 
ladies-of-honor, members of the Royal family, and 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 25 

for one privileged order, that of the Annunziata, 
was held by Monsieur Minghetti, who becomes by 
this order the "Cousin of the King." Tims Mad- 
ame Minghetti has a place next to the Queen. ( >n 
the left of the Queen sit the ladies of the court. 

As our party entered, a gentleman covered with 
orders advanced and escorted Madame Figliocarno 
to one of the many seat in front of the throne, her 
three young ladies following her. As they sat 
gazing at the scene, she explained the situation to 
them, and congratulated them on having come 
early because they could thus see the court arrive. 
At about eleven o'clock the band of musicians 
Struck up the Royal March, a door opened at one 
side, tW( 1 ( renerals in full uniform entered, the ' 
tlemen of the household, and — then, the King 
and Queen. All rose, and made a deep obeisance. 
It was a splendid picture. The diamonds of the 
Roman Princesses, the finest in the world, (lashed 
and danced in the light. Every one remained 
standing while the Queen, leaning on the King's 
arm, made five curtesies; first to the ladies of the 
diplomatic circle, secondly to the ambassadors. 



26 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS, 

another to the ladies of the court, and finally to 
the vast concourse of guests before her, and behind 
our ladies, who were seated on red sofas, to a crowd 
of officers in uniform, the Deputies and so on. 

Semiramide was dazzled and pleased. She 
loved splendor, and her feet danced, as slie sat 
looking when the Queen graciously signified to 
Count Gianotti, the Master of Ceremonies, that 
she would dance, A Court quadrille was soon 
formed, the Queen dancing with the German 
Ambassador as highest in rank ; the Marchesa di 
Villamarina following, then the ministers and 
ambassadors dancing with the court ladies — the 
King never dances. Behind Semiramide stood a 
young Irish officer, whom she had met in Rome. 
" Come let us go and dance ! " said she — to him. 

The horror of Madame Figliocarno can better 
be imagined than described. She pulled the too 
ambitious Semiramide into her seat, and said : 

" My dear ! It is not etiquette for you to dance 
yet. Wait until the royal quadrille is at an end, 
and then you will see the Count Gianotti signal for 
you and others, that you may dance." 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 27 

" I may dance ! I like that ! " said Miss 
Stuart. " In America I generally dance when I 
please." 

" But you must not come to a Court Ball unless 
you are willing to observe the etiquette," said 
Madame Figliocarno. 

Clementina and Euphrosyne had been silent, 
and not unobservant spectators of all this scene, 
and they particularly admired the manner of the 
Marchesa di Villamarina, who was so gentle, so 
amiable, so unobtrusive, yet so careful of every- 
one's comfort. 

She came and spoke to them twice while Semi- 
ramide was dancing with her young Irish officer, 
and finally they found partners and began to 
dance themselves, and then walked out to see the 
grand old hall of the Quirinal illuminated by the 
electric light, the household troops, gigantic men 
in brass cuirass and helmet, making the scene 
glitter — a vast and splendid hall frescoed by im- 
mortal hands, now thrown open as a cloak-room. 

The official who had relieved them of their 
cards of invitation had given them a pretty sou- 



28 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL C< H 

venir of the occasion, an "order of the dance," in 
scarlet, gold and pearl, in shape of a royal crown, 
which the Lcirls prized. Euphrosyne had lost hers, 
and her partner, an Italian gentleman, stopped to 

get her am. [her one. 

As e red a moment near the door of the 

ball-room, she saw the M >me "in hastily 

with the Prim I aking 

hurriedly in Italian. 

Li what shall . She has taken Madame 

Minghetti's seat — next tl i! We must 

remove her before the Queen returns from the 
blue salon ! " said the Man hesa. 

The Prince smi the Aim - 

whom they call 'loud and bourn he not?" 

he asked. 

Euphrosyne's heart sank within her. She 
stepped into the tjirone mom. There sat Seini- 
ramide in the sacred chair of the ( >rder of the 
Annunziata, and her Irish officer, aiding and abet- 
ting her, stood leaning over her chair, and laugh- 
ing ! 

He had told her that would be the most decidedly 



AT THE ITALIAN COURT. 29 

"independent" thing she could do — to intrude in 
that innermost circle, and to take that chair. 

" Then 111 Jo it! " said .she. " I would like to 
show them that I am as good as any Queen ! " 

All this was of course unknown to Euphrosyne, 
but the kind-hearted Marches a saw the look on 
her fair face as sh< :er, and knew 

that she had overheard her remark; so .she did the 
prettiest and most graceful thing ] 

"You will go in to supper, will you not?" she 
asked, "and I will go and fetch your sister to 
you.*' So this gracious lady, the most perfectly 
well-bred woman possible, under the guise of hos- 
pitality, got Semiramid the "chair of the 
Annunziata" without making a scene. 

Hut when later, some well bred English girls 
asked to come to the Queen, to play on the 
banjo, and sing their negro melodies, which accom- 
plishment is just now in high request at the Italian 
Court, as being "full of local color." "a very 
American thin-', indeed," the M tuart were 

not asked, whi< h surprised Semiramide, for. .is she 

said, " We could have shown them the real things. 



30 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COUR l">. 

I guess we know real plantation nigger songs 
r than any English!" Perhaps Count Gia- 
the Marchesa di Villamarina, and the Amer- 
ican Minister did know why the "loud" and 
"bouncing" girls were not asked again to the 
Quirinal. 

II .vever they knew nothing of the impn 
they were making. They found the supper su- 
perbly lavish, and \ I. for the housekeeping 
of the Quirinal is excellent. The Queen has an 
American taste for warm rooms and cool drinks, 
.so the -iris grot what they did not often find in Eu- 
rope — plenty of iced water and iced lemonade, and 
Mar< hesa di Villamarina, with her 
led with diamond iear them, 
and .saw them served with everythi 

'•I wish 1 had her manners/' whispered Clem- 
entina. 

M 1 wish I had her kind heart." said Euphrosyne, 
who had heard and seen more than her sister. 

le works hard ! "said the young Irish officer. 
•• 1 juppose the Villamarina writes notes all day 
long 



at THE 1 1. \i.ian COURT. 31 

"And very careful, and very neat notes they 
;liocarno. 

Then the girls returned to the ball-room where 
they had a -nod look at the King, who is a small 
dark man, with prematurely gray hair, with a line 
kingly bearing, and the splendid black flashing 

of his race. He does not like society or 
amusements. He stands aside and lets his all- 
accomplisl n do the work. He talks a 

little to a gentleman of the court or perhaps speaks 
to a lad) Ol high rank, or an ambassadress. Eti- 
quette forbids any one speaking to him, and as he 

has 1:' 1 small talk, he 

erally stands silent and looks very much b 
The gentlemen of his household complain a little 
of their d ; 1 to the theal ra, but he 

will not go, keeping them at home to talk politics, 
or hunting, or of hi which he is fond. lb' 

has the courage of hi- race, is adored by his peo- 
ple, and l..oks every inch a Kii 

'• I did not see him in the supper-room," ob- 
served Semiramide to her Irish officer. 

11 Royalty never sups in public," said he. " I 



32 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

think they are served in their own apartments." 
When they returned to the dancing, the Queen 
seemed to have melted away, and Semiramide re- 
gretted that she had not said good-night to the 
King, as she had boasted that she would, "just for 
fun." 



II. 



THE QUEEN OF ITALY. 

AFTER this presentation at Court, Euphrosyne 
was very anxious to know how the Queen, 
who is still a young woman, only thirty-eight (and 
she looks ten years younger), could have learned 
so much ; and how it happened that she was not 
spoiled, first by her beauty, and secondly by the 
homage and the flattery which follow a woman 
once justly called the most beautiful Princess in the 
world, and who is now the most admired Queen. 

Marguerite of Savoy was the daughter of 
Victor Emmanuel's brother, the Duke of Genoa, 
who fell at the battle of Custozza. His two chil- 
dren, a girl and a boy, became the wards of their 
noble uncle, Victor Emmanuel, who determined to 
marry the pretty Marguerite to his own son Hum- 
bert. The son has become Duke of Genoa. 
33 



34 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Perhaps there had been a promise or intention 
of this kind beforehand. At any rate, the young 
Princess had been most carefully educated, and 
showed always a remarkable love of learning. 
Going once to the old city of Padua with her gov* 
erness, Miss Arbessor, a learned Austrian lady, 
she visited the Paduan University known to all of 
tlie famous place where Portia in the " Mer- 
chant of Venice" graduated. Here, at the top of 
the staircase, the bright little girl saw the statue of 
the famous Helene Lucretia Piscopia, and was told 
that she spoke Arabic, Greek, Latin. Spanish, and 
French with fluency; was beside a poetess, a mu- 
sician, a writer of mathematical and astronomical 
dissertations; waslaureated with a Doctor's degree 
of the University, which she richly deserved. 

Miss Ail lessor noticed that her little charge 
looked very thoughtful as she wandered about the 
great halls. k> Why are you so melancholy, my 
Princess ?" she asked. 

" Because, Rosa, I fear I shall never be as 
learned as she was." 

" But you can try," said the governess. 



THE QUEEN OF ITALY. 35 

And when they returned to the old Palace at 
Monza, where the Iron Crown of Lombardy is kept 
(Monza is a little village near Milan, but it has in 
it a curious old Palace, where the Queen comes 
now, for a part of every autumn, because it was 
there that much of her industrious girlhood was 
spent), inspired by the example of Helene Lucre- 
tia, she divided her day into six parts, and gave 
faithfully certain required hours to certain studies. 
When a girl of fifteen, she attracted the attention 
of learned men by the variety of her information. 
Amongst others who so noticed her was the learned 
Mr. Mar>h, our American minister, who spoke 
of her, "as knowing a great deal for so young a 
girl ; " and his own niece, Miss Crane, was often 
invited to spend four or five weeks with the Prin- 
cess that she might speak English with her. She 
studied German, Spanish, French and Russian with 
native teachers, and music (which to-dav is her 
chief enjoyment) under the best masters. 

Meantime history, which is an important study 
for everyone of us, engaged herdeepesl attention. 
She became profoundly learned in the history and 



36 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

literature of her own magnificent Italy, which holds 
invaluable art-treasures in every little town. It is 
said that on her first visit to Mantua, the birthplace 
of Virgil, she repeated the lines from Dante, in 
which the poet is made to give an account of him- 
self. She was only twelve years of age then. She 

lwld the hand of her royal uncle, Victor Emmanuel, 

who said to her : 

" My little maid, you shall one day be the Queen 
of United Italy." 

She had a natural tendency toward order and 

;n. great self-denial, and a wonderful 1< I 

books, but she had not a remarkable memory. 

This she resolved to cultivate, and used 

hour before the time sp 1 stud}- dates, verbs, 

and tables, in older to strengthen her mind in this 

ct. To this judicious habit she owes her 

:nt wonderful command over her memory — 

although even now she refers often to her friend, 

the Alar* hesa di Yillamarina. for a name or a date 

— but never for a fart. 

( )f the Italian classics. Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto 
and Tasso, she early became mistress, reading them 



THE QUEEN OF ITALY. 37 

at night, for her pastime. Then she took up Shakes- 
peare, a very hard poet for an Italian girl to mas- 
ter ; but so fond of him has she become that statues 
of Juliet, of Beatrice, of Imogen and of Portia, 
ornament her private rooms. 

Mathematics came very hard to this poetic and 
musical girl. She shed many tears over her multi- 
plication table and her algebra ; but she conquered 
both, ami can count in eight lang Let even 

a very good linguist try that, and he will see how 
difficult it is even to count fluently in two. 

While all this hard elemental knowledge was 

j acquired, sometimes with headaches, often 
against her pleasure, she was being taught to ride, 
to drive, to dai , and to play the Italian 

instruments — the mandoline and guitar as well as 

the piano, she has lately added to lur acquire- 
ments by taking lessons on the banjo. 

Before her marriage, which took place when she 

jeventeen, she had written papers comparing 

the genius of Goethe with that of Shakespeare, 

Dante, and Milton, and a very clever paper on the 

" Ducal Courts of the Middl Truly a royal 



38 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

girl ! worthy to stand by the statue of Helene Lu- 
eretia Piscopia, in the University of Padua ! 

As the wife of Humbert, she ascended the throne 
of United Italy, January 9, 1 8 7 S . She has one 
sun, a fair-haired boy called the Prime of Naples. 
To his education she has given much personal at- 
tention, and with all his royal governors he still 
owes much to this cultivated moth' 

The chief characteristics of her manners, Eu- 
phrosyne finally decided were gentleness and 
humility. As she drives through the enormous 
crowds of the Carnival, the rough and somewhat 
formidable-looking popolo Romano^ every cap is 
lifted, every hand raised respectfully, every one 
bows and smiles as her scarlet liveries flash by, 
she smiles and bows; and it is a very pretty sight 
to see her stand in a window, on the lasl day of 
Carnival, throwing bonbons and flowers, accepting 
violets with a gracious bow, or in the evening when 
the light of candles comes on — the "moccoletti" — 
striving to blow out the nearest taper, or lighting 
her own, mingling in the fun and enjoying it. 

Very tender and good is Marguerite of Savoy to 



THE QUEEN OF ITALY. 39 

those who have served her. To Rosa Arbessor 
Inr Austrian governess, she gave her portrait set 
in diamonds, with an inscription describing her as 
her "best friend " ; and when she married, she sent 
her her wedding dress, and has given her an in- 
come for life. 

In speaking to an American lady, she described 
her own fondness for "reading American maga- 
zines." She finds "great freshness in their papers," 
she says. In her ( !ourt are many American ladies, 
of whom she is very fond. One of her ladies-in- 
waiting is the Princess Brancaccio, who was Miss 
Field : the other is the Princess Yicovara, who was 
Miss Spencer. Near to her is Madame Peruzzi, 
the daughter of our sculptor Story, of who.se little 
daughter the Queen is godmother; she gave the 
name herself, " Margherita Umberta," the Italian 
names being capable of the masculine and femi- 
nine — Margherito-Umberto being a favorite name 
for boys. The wife of the King's friend and 
chamberlain. Count Gianotti (a very handsome 
Piedmontese), was a Miss Kinney of New York; 
and there are several other American ladies, mar- 



40 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

ricd to Italians, and the Queen is said to find them 
especially simfatica, and treats them with great 
kindness. 

The King and Queen often drive out in the 
streets and the beautiful suburbs of RLome unat- 
tended, the Queen sitting up by the side of the 
King in a sort of T. cart, while he drives. They 
look very happy and contented with their lot. 

But it has not always hern a smiling, or an easy 
these occupants of a throne. King I [umberl 
fought by the side of h father at Palestro, 

when a mere boy ; and doubtless he likes that life 
better than he does the life "I a Kin-. All the 
Princes of this house have shown great bravery; 
they are loyal too, and do what the}- ought to do. 
And the Princess was naturally full of life and 
frolic, liking of all thii le on the bare ba< k 

of a donkey, to the terror of her mamma, the 
stately Duchess of Genoa; but she was wholly 
amenable to discipline. " Remember," said 
Arbessor to her charge, "] wish you to be the 
Trine- ." This ga) love of fun is 

visible in the Queen when she goes to the theatre; 



THE QUEEN OF ITALY. 41 

she sometimes laughs so gayly that she hides her 
face in her hands. How hard must it be both for 
King and Queen to pass much of their Yiyesfoswg 
for the mere purposes of ceremony ! How glad to 
get away to the hunt, is the King, from court cere- 
monials and royal etiquette. How glad the Queen 
to find herself at Turin, where is her favorite pal- 
ace, or better still at Monza, where she can lead a 
domestic life, with her books and music, and with 
her boy by her side. 

Charming are the birthday rejoicings for this 
young Prince, and for all the children of the Princes 
and nobles who come to the Palace, where the 
young heir to the throne gives each a present. 
And better still to the poor, for to them are sent 
whole handfuls of gold by the Queen, whose al- 
moners are always seeking the deserving. 

In observing the^e two Royalties, one sees what 
an effect careful training has had in fitting two re- 
bellious natures loving freedom better than bonds 
to wear with grace, the yoke ol a high position. 

We see a prince, by nature a soldier and a hun- 
ter, shy and embarrassed in public, grave, con- 



42 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

cisc, anxious, yet learning all the rble of a King, 
and bearing himself to admiration; we see a gay 
frolicsome girl, raised to so dangerous a height in 
the first bloom of her exquisite beauty, with a 
charm and a fascination about her whole person- 
ality which attracts old and young, gentle and sim- 
ple, who yet throws a magic spell uf happiness and 
pleasure over every one, who also by study and In- 
constant effort learns her hard role oi being Queen. 

What tact has she not shown! how true her 
piety, so that the Pope in spite of political strife 
always allows her mass in her private chapel, and 
recognizes her goodness, although his predecessor 
excommunicated her father-in-law, and although he 
calls her husband an interloper at the Quirinal. 

The King and Queen of Italy are the most re- 
publican of all the monarchs of Europe in their 
habits, and ways of life, and their Court is the sim- 
plest. They seem to desire to get rid of the stiff- 
ness and coldness of a Court, conversing freely 
with their own ladies and gentlemen, and with 
those whom they invite — and yet, certain laws of 
etiquette must be observed, and are observed. 



THE QUEEN OF ITALY. 43 

On this point, independence of etiquette, Amer- 
icans have a bad reputation. Not only have we 
had citizens who have behaved as Semiramide 
Stuart essayed to conduct herself, but, more un- 
fortunately, we have suffered in the persons of our 
Ambassadors and our Ambassadrices in former 
times. Often the diplomatic dinner party teems 
with American stories. They still, in Naples, tell 
of a foreign Ambassador who used to go out and 
crow like a cock when the King passed, to show 
his independence. 

But we can quote the names of Abbot Lawrence, 
Edward Everett, George Bancroft, John Lothrop 
Motley, John Jay, James Russell Lowell, John A. 
Dix, George P. Marsh, William Waldorf Astor, and 
many others, as men who were great ornaments to 
the American name, and yet who did not disdain 
to learn the etiquette and the manners of the coun- 
try to which they were accredited. Mr. Marsh and 
Mr. Astor were distinguished linguists, and knew 
nearly as many languages as the Queen. 

The King drives with his hat almost always in 
his hand, so frequent are his bows to his people. 



4 \ ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Every one who salutes him, gets a how in return. 
I [e is always uncovered, in the cold Roman winter. 
Now an elderly lady in Rome i omplained that the 
young Americans did not bow to her when they 
,1 her on the the hotel. " Why do 

they not take a hint from the i. >he said. 

The why the lady asked this question as 

to the impoliteness of youn was this: 

There were many re; V n 

schools in Rome at that time: young men who 
were travelling learn- 

ing ami good manners. They wi nly young 

men, this lady affirmed, "who did not take ofl their 
hats as th< ! a lady on thi 

American young man can, if he wishes 
come the most perfect gentleman in the worl 
he has an honest respect for women. That will 
him not to smoke in her presence without 
asking permission, he will pay all attention to 
erly and infirm persons, he will lift his hat 
lady passes him. But he may not ignore th< 
tional points of etiquett countries he visits. 

For instance he should remember, in Italy, to call 



THE QUEEN OF ITALY. 45 

the next day on every lady to whom he has been 
introduced the evening before at the dinner party 
or ball, and many other little things of this kind. 

However, the Italian Princess who was learning 
English, told her teacher that she liked the man- 
ners of American young men better than she did 
the manners of American young girls ! She thought 
them more respectful. She said that the young men 
were apt to be man] v. simple and unaffected, that 
the air of equality and liberty was pleasing to her. 
She said that the American girls were beautiful, 
but not polite, that they did nut return her DOWS 
which she made to them. 

"Hut I suppose," said the teacher, "they hail 
not been introduced." 

"What difference does that make?" said the 
Italian Princess; " my bow to them was a sufficient 
introduction." And then .she added, that they did 
not rise when she spoke to them, that they had not 
refined voices. "Why do they not Study the Eng- 
lish in that respect?" she asked. "Hear," said 
this music-loving foreigner, "what a fine, broad, 
open note an Englishwoman strikes when she be- 



46 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

gins to talk ! sweet, too! not discordant, or nasal, 
or poor ! Then, also listen to our Queen ! how cul- 
tivated her voice is — more so than most Italians." 

"I see now that you begin to understand what 
our friend meant by l loud i and 'bouncing.' 1 You 
remember you asked me that long ago ?" 

" Perhaps," said the Italian. 

•• Vet an American girl," said her teacher, "has 
more reason for being elegant than another; 
she has to create her own precedent and public 
opinion. She has a patriotic reason. " 

A frequent and nearly always fatal mistake is, 
that an American girl accepts in place of the Inst 
acquaintances, second and third-rate people, who 
like our Madame Figliocarno, have not the best or 
freshest of social positions to give to those who 
accept her power of opening the first door. 

Italian etiquette is very particular .is to tin- 
necessity of chaperonage. No young girl ever 

walks the streets of Rome alone. Her mother or 
a friend accompanies her. On this point Italians 
are very unforgiving to ignorance. No lady should 
ask a gentleman to go, alone with her, to any gal- 



THE QUEEN OF ITALY. 47 

lery or museum or church, unless she is of sufficient 
age to make it perfectly proper. No unmarried 
woman in Italy even if she be forty years of age, 
could take that position so innocently assumed 
here by young girls. It may therefore be easily 
understood why the Misses Stuart, who had no 
chaperon, were misunderstood in Italy, and why 
they found that their most innocent actions began 
to be misinterpreted, and why Madame Figliocar- 
no's introduction did them no lasting good. They 
saw other countrywomen of their own retain the 
favor of the court, they saw the American ladies 
who seemed to them the petted favorites of the 
society which they aspired to enjoy, while they 
were after a time left out. 

Poor Euphrosyne was never invited to the Quir- 
inal again. She suffered as many an inn<X mt 
person does, for the guilty. Her sister's manners 
had shut forever from her, from them all, that priv- 
ilege, for if one of these chamberlains, or ladies 
of the Court, sees the least specimen of bad man- 
ners, it is all finished for those who exhibit the 
lack of good breeding. 



48 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

11 1 declare, no one has been polite to me but the 
Queen," said Semiramide, as they left Rome, pout- 
ing over some ball cards which did not arrive. 

She did not wish to learn. She was, as she called 
it, " too independent/' to submit to the inevitable, 
to learn the etiquette of a foreign country. Even 
when a good American friend of hers told her that 
she should not receive the visits of an Italian count, 
who was handsome, gay, flattering, and apparently 
a gentleman, she rebelled excessively, and in- 
sisted upon taking the etiquette of America as her 
guide. 

After making herself conspicuous, and losing 
heart to his false black eves, she learned to her 
disgust that he was only amusing himself at her 
expense, that she had become only the subject of 
another set of stories told at Ambassadorial din- 
ners at the expense of American ladies. 



III. 



THE SPANISH COURT. 



A 



N old writer, speaking of Royal Educations 
and the forming of a Court Lady says : 



As to Court ladies their Manners, Words, Gestures, and 
Air, should be refined. ... A certain feminine sweet- 
ness should so shine in all her carriage, that whether she 
walk, or stand, or speak, she may appear without any " .Mix- 
ture of the Masculine." Doubtless, virtues of the mind are 
as necessary to the woman as to the man. To be free from 
affectation, easy and graceful in her actions, of good charac- 
ter, prudent and discreet, not proud or curious, not given to 
railing nor conceited, not contentious, or impertinent, know- 
ing how to procure and maintain the favor not only of the lady 
whom she serves, but of all others. . . . She should 
have great Regard, not to give any occasion to be ill-spoken 
of, and so to carry herself as not only not to be spotted with 
any fault, but not so much as to be suspected. ... I say 
'tis very necessary for a Court lady, above all things, to be 
affable, pleasant, and able to entertain all sorts of company, 
49 



50 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

upon agreeable and fitting Subjects. Her Temper must ap- 
pear calm and modest, and her Inclinations virtuous. Be- 
sides which she must also be furnished with a quick and 
ready Wit, and show herself very remote from any Clannish 
Actions. Such Goodness ought to shine in her as may not 
less procure her an Esteem for being chaste, prudent, and 
humane, than for being pleasant, witty and discreet. On 
this account she is tyed up to a certain Medium, difficult in 
itself, and placed between two Extremes, which she may 
approach to but not go beyond. 

This charming quotation is from a very rare old 
book, written in 15 16, by the Comte Baldassar 
Castiglione, called The Courtier ; a book much ad- 
mired by all monarchs, particularly by that excel- 
lent man and conscientious father, Prince Albert. 
The translator says of it, " I need but mention it, 
as wrote by one that had lived in the Court of King 
Henry vn." He also goes on to say : 

If for profitable Reading you can nowhere borrow a better 
System for living than from him. In fine, it is of such Worth 
and Excellence, that if a Person were furnished with no other 
Reading than this Book and had that well imprinted on his 
Mind he might pass not only for a man of Learning and Sci- 
ence, but by a first Observance of its Precepts might more- 



THE SPANISH COURT. 5 1 

over make himself distinguished for a person of Wisdom, 
Nobility of Birth, and fitness to keep company with the great- 
est Potentates whatsoever. 

It is in this book, the familiar friend of the royal 
educators of Europe, that we learn how much 
thought is given to the duty which Princes owe to 
others ; and there is one short quotation which is 
so pointed, that it is of value to the whole world : 

But when a Prince lays aside the appearance of one, and 
puts himself on a level with his Inferiors (though perhaps 
so as not to be wholly unknown), in divesting himself of one 
Dignity — he assumes a greater — that of approving his Su- 
periority over others, not in Power, but in Virtue, and makes 
it evident that his Authority is not his only Merit. 

The capital letters are the author's. 

It may seem to be a " lucus a 11011 lucendo " to thus 
open a chapter on the Spanish Court, its formal 
etiquette, its duennas, its fans, and its not too repu- 
table Queens, with this philosophy of the irreproach- 
able Castiglione ; but we shall avoid the history 
of Christina, and she who so unworthily bore 
the sainted name of Isabella — Isabel Segunda — 
to speak of a daughter of that dethroned and ex- 



52 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

iled Queen, one of the loveliest of Spanish Prin- 
cesses — the Infanta Dona Maria del Pilar, as 
proving its truth, and as an embodiment of Castigli- 
one's ideal of what a Princess should be. 

She was the third sister of the late King Alfonso. 
She died in Paris in 1879, at the age of seventeen. 
She was a lovely, tall, fair girl, with most winning 
manners. She had much influence over her royal 
brother, and her intercession was often used to 
secure pardons, or to obtain his royal bounty for 
afflicted families. During her short life, she did 
much good ; and she was one of those " royal 
girls," who " in divesting herself of one dignity, 
assumed a greater." The quotation from The 
Courtier fitted her exactly. 

She was, like her sisters, and unlike her mother, 
fond of the arts ; and to perfect herself in drawing 
went to the studio of a distinguished artist in Paris. 
She was of course incognito ; for Isabella of Spain, 
although dethroned, exiled and disgraced — hav- 
ing renounced her "divine right" — lives in Paris 
as a Royalty still, and her daughters, Eulalie, Paz 
and Pilar, had all the entourage of Princesses. The 



THE SPANISH COURT. 



53 



ex-queen now, however, makes frequent returns, as 
a visitor to Spain, where she is very popular. 

Of course this rank and state entailed upon Pilai 
the necessity of a duenna — indeed, a Spanish girl 
without one would be an impossibility, and, under 
the convenient guise of a Sister of Charity, a noble 
senora acted as her companion. A Spanish woman, 
and a very noble one at that, can always assume a 
religious dress, and most of them are members of 
some religious order. Pilar, as Mademoiselle de 

P thus attended, would go daily to the studio 

of a distinguished artist to study. All the daugh- 
ters of this pleasure-loving, unscrupulous Isabella 
were studious and gifted. The eldest, the Infanta 
Isabella, is a remarkably well-read woman. Dona 
Paz is a poet of no mean order. All are kind and 
sympathetic women. 

But we must allow one of her fellow students, a 
young American artist, to tell in her own pictur- 
esque way the story of this royal girl : 

" Our studio presented many living studies in its 
faithful workers. We did not know each other's 
names. We were simply ' No. i,' ' No. 2,' ' No. 3/ 



54 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

and only our master knew us otherwise than as 
Miss So-and-So, or Mademoiselle, Signorita, or 
Signorina. I knew only that one of our group was 
a young Russian Baroness, because she played on 
the balalaika, or Russian lute, and wrote her name 
Fedorovna, on her canvas. Otherwise, all was 
mystery. I used to think that * No. i ' must be a 
somebody because the Sister of Charity watched her 
closely, and was very suspicious if the master at- 
tempted to induce her to sit as a model, which we 
all did occasionally. 

" ' No. 2 ' was a poor, pale, fainting creature, 
with an extraordinary talent. We did not approach 
her, any of us, in our efforts at reproducing the 
foreshortening, which our teacher demanded of us. 
What eyes she could draw ! poor ' No. 2.' And 
the eyes which she liked to draw were those of 
' No. 1 ' — beautiful Spanish eyes. 

" One day ' No. 2 ' fell from her chair in a most 
terribly long dismal faint, and I was astonished to 
see every one retire, even the Sister of Charity, be- 
fore ' No. 1,' who showed a zeal, a coolness, and tal- 
ent in the art of resuscitation, worthy of a doctor. 




ELIZABETH, EMPRESS OK AUSTRIA. 



THE SPANISH COURT. 



57 



" When ' No. 2 ' recovered her senses, I observed 
a whispered consultation with the Sister, who put- 
ting her arm gently around the fainting girl drew 
her down stairs, and with the help of ' No. i,' 
placed her in a beautiful carriage, which bore on 
its panels a royal crown. A few days after this, as 
I was driving in the Bois de Boulogne, I saw the 
exiled Queen Isabella, with her three daughters, 
Eulalie, Paz, and Pilar in a royal state carriage. 

" ' Look ! ' said my mother ; ' see the rich Span- 
ish beauty of these young girls.' 

" I looked, and was rewarded by a most cordial 
bow. It was from the Princess Pilar. 

" The prettiest of all three was ' No. i,' my com- 
rade of the drawing-class, who had been so kind. 

"After that, through another channel, we be- 
came great friends, and I learned to respect and to 
love her. She was a rather sad, and serious girl ; 
a shadow seemed hanging over her. But I cannot 
attempt to describe her stately politeness, her con- 
sideration for others, her manners ! They were so 
beautiful ! I learned that she was very much in 
love with Rudolph, Crown Prince of Austria, who 



58 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

had asked her hand in marriage, but political con- 
siderations had prevented the match. Her heart 
broke early, and perhaps it was well, poor girl, that 
she died young. She had known but little of the 
sanctity of home, or of happiness — but she re- 
spected the happiness of others, she was good, and 
devout and pure and true. To the poor fainting 
girl, she became the kindest of friends, and deli- 
cately filled that slender purse, which enabled the 
young artist to seek rest and to improve her health. 

" Then came the news of her early death — poor 
little delicate Pilar. She sickened and died. We 
crowned her vacant chair with flowers, and the 
artist put away her last canvas among his sou- 
venirs. 

" There came to me, and to her other friend, 
' No. 2,' a mysterious pacquet. On opening it, we 
found each a ring, and within was engraved, 

" ' Pilar. May you be happy,' in her own stately 
Spanish tongue." 

So vanished one of the jewels of the Spanish 
crown. 



THE SPANISH COURT. 59 

Now for the Court, which she did not live to 
grace — Alfonso was fond of having his sisters with 
him in Spain. Now for Madrid, with its crowded 
streets, its splendid palaces, its gaudy processions 
of gay toreadors or bull-fighters, its gayly-dressed 
ladies bound for the Prado, its tinkling guitars, its 
beggars who dance and sing, its eternal street cries, 
its transparent dry air, its snowy mountains, its 
sun swept boulevards, its high wind, its Madrilena 
with her dreamy eyes and raven tresses, with her 
little black veil in place of the mantilla (which is 
out of date, and is only worn at mass, and at the 
Corrida detoros) — the Madrilena with a rose placed 
just above her left eye. Crowd, color and noise. 
We go by the Puerto del Sol, to the Hotel de la 
Paz — they are very fond of the word Paz, because 
they never have any peace — in Spain. 

We have talked of etiquette before, but now we 
have got to the land where it grows. Every one is 
a miracle of" deportment," in Spain, from the beg- 
gar in his heavy cloak hueel red, blue, and yellow, 
to the lazy Spanish driver, to the soldier fully 
armed, to the grand officer, up to the Minister of 



60 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

State, through all its torrents of population, through 
its dense black crowds, up to the handsome little 
King, the brother of Pilar ! 

Perhaps that title has never been given to him 
before — but it should not have been one of his 
least claims to excellence. 

The King used daily to drive in Madrid ; then 
the priests with their shovel hats, the courtier, the 
senator, the Galicians with loads of wood, the red- 
bonneted Catalan, die matador, the beggar, the 
handsome Asturian nurse with the pretty Spanish 
baby in her arms — all made him a deep obeisance ; 
and he raised his hat to them all. The dark-skinned 
Gitana made him a stately curtesy, which greeting 
he solemnly relumed. What politeness, what gra< e, 
what a land of good manners ! No wonder the 
King learned to bow with grace ! 

I le was a handsome young man ; this kind King 
of Spain ; an admirer said of him : " He has black 
curling hair, fine dark eyes, a gracious smile and 
the sweetest manners in the world. He is barely 
twenty-seven, as brave as the Cid Campeador, and 
as polished as a knight-errant." 



THE SPANISH COURT. 6 1 

He was married twice ; first to his cousin, Mer- 
cedes, a daughter of the Due de Montpensier, to 
whose son, Pilar's sister, the Infanta Eulalie is 
said to be affianced. She died the year after her 
marriage. Poor little Mercedes ! The Spanish 
people still are fond of telling of her wandering in 
the magnolia avenues with her boy-lover, Alfonso, 
dressed as an Andalusian, with fan and mantle. 
His second wife was Christina, an Austrian Prin- 
cess, the cousin of the Emperor. She is tall and 
fair and grand, a pure and accomplished, but grave 
and reserved woman, whom the gay Spanish people 
have not loved hitherto. 

She, in her turn, does not love her royal mother- 
in-law, nor the Grand Maitresse — the equivalent 
at the Spanish Court of the gentle Marchesa di 
Villamarina, the Italian Mistress of Ceremonies 
in Rome. This lady is the Duenna of Duennas. 
Etiquette is in the very turn of her eyelash. She 
knows all the seven thousand observances that 
make the Spanish ( lourt the stateliest in the world. 
And Christina of Spain, unlike Marguerita of Italy, 
has no intimates among her court ladies. She was 



62 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

a true and tender wife, she is devoted to her lit- 
tle daughter, the Princess Mercedes (the future 
Queen of Spain, perhaps), and superintends her 
education, her manners and her health constantly 
and judiciously ; but she is serious and reserved, 
absorbed in music and study, and does not make 
friends. 

Poor woman ! now that she is a widow, her heart 
may be opened lo her people; as for the Baby 

Queen, the little Infanta Mercedes, "she cannot 
understand the death of the father, whom she may 
probably succeed .1 ign. The child believes 

the Kin- to be still staying at the Prado, and lately 
pulled a rose to pieces, put the leaves in an envel- 
lope, and gave them to King Alfonso's favorite 
valet, saying, 'Here, Prudencio, go to the Prado 
and give this to papa. Tell him to come soon, for 
it is so sad here — nobody does anything but cry.' " 
How sad it all is, and the more that we know 
that this young King of Spain, Toledo, Arragon 
and Leon, Prince of the Asturias, Caliph of Gre- 
nada (it sounds like the Arabian Nights), Cordova 
and Seville, Jefe of Jaen and Malaga, hated eti- 




• I XII.. KING OF SPAIN 



THE SPANISH COURT. 65 

quette. But he was its slave. This young monarch, 
enthusiastic at heart, full of hopes for Spain, lover 
of peace, lover of the people, going to sit like a 
brother by the bedsides of his cholera-stricken peo- 
ple as we all have read with a thrill, with his dreams 
of constitutional freedom, with his plans for wise 
reforms and national progress — this young man 
stood amid the Marshals of Spain amidst Senators 
and Deputies, amid a glittering cloud of Captains, 
Generals, Jefes, Alcaldes, and Prefects, hedged 
about by the Syndic of Madrid — the Governor 
and staff, and officers and ministers of state — look- 
\ fully bored, doubtless wishing he were driving 
his young wife in a tall phaeton ! But bareheaded, 
patient, he assisted at the grandest and most tedi- 
ous of all military functions, a military mass, or 
at the scarcely less melancholy presentations at 
Court, with the same serenity and attention to duty. 
He ..wed much perhaps to his youthful training. 
He received the finishing touches of his education 
at Sandhurst, a military college in England, where 
he distinguished himself by his obedience, his sol- 
dierly devotion to duty. These simple manly traits 



66 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

characterized him always, although the whole of 
Spain was 

" A la disposition de Suo Majestad" 

He had always the true heart of his sister Pilar 
beating sympathetically for all humanity, in his 
breast, and he was a good King. He felt for his 
people, like a father, like a brother. Perhaps it 
will be agreed that he was the best man who has 
ever ruled Spain. 

The royal receptions in Madrid are like those 
of all Royalties. Strangers must approach through 
their ministers. The Queen walks around with the 
Grande Mai/resse, speaking to each lady. It is 
not etiquette to kiss her hand. A Queen of Spain 
must not be touched. Though there is supreme 
good breeding everywhere, a galaxy of bewitching 
faces, there is an etiquette which must be seen to 
be appreciated. 

The young King and Queen however were wont 
to yield to pleasanter circumstances when they 
went to Seville. There they invited ladies to come 
to them in walking dress, informally ; and some 
came in bonnets, some in veils, some quite in grand 



THE SPANISH COURT. 67 

toilette — some in " rags, and some in tags, and 
some in velvet gowns." The Grande Maitresse was 
to be pitied in Seville, having before her the almost 
unpronounceable names of the Seville Aristocracy 
and Democracy — from the " Aunt of the Arch- 
bishop " to the " Niece of the Baker." And one 
woman once brought her — baby. At this the Queen 
and the Grande Maitresse frowned. However, the 
cold Christina always made in Spanish a pretty 
speech to them all. These informal receptions, in 
the gallery of " Maria del Padilla " with its open 
work walls of sculptured stone, used to make a 
picture worthy of Valasquez. 

Sometimes their Majesties attended dinners and 
tertulias and fetes at the houses of the great people, 
where they danced " high disposedly ; " and gossips 
have whispered that both King and Queen have 
been known to be at masked balls ! and that the 
King used to dance " sequidillas and fandangoes." 

A ball in Madrid is a very much less expensive 
affair than one in Paris or Rome or London even if 
Royalty be present. It is given perhaps in a palace 
very old and very splendid, but there is very little 



68 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

light, very few candles, and almost nothing to eat 

— glasses of sugared water, dry cakes and biscuits, 
perhaps a few dried figs and plums, but not many 

— but supreme good breeding everywhere and a 
great temptation to enjoy one's self. It is really 
gay. The Spanish women talk a great deal ; they 
have a grace andnaivett, and a natural mirthfulness 
impossible to resist. At the tertulia or soiree 
dansante, they actually forget to dance, they like so 
much to talk. They look exceedingly high-born 
and high-bred, but they scamper and chat like gyp- 
sies. At home they string beads, and make pretty 
toilettes, and play cards, and handle a fan — they 
do not read books or make themselves blue. They 
are too gay for that ! 

No invitations are given out after our fashion. 
A noble lady only announces her day, be it for a 
ball or a fancy party. At first the company sit 
around the room on stiff benches, all in a row and 
drink water mildly, handed to them by the most 
stately cabelleros. Then they talk and laugh and 
twitter. Then some one plays a guitar, and sings ; 
then many guitars sound, and castanets ; then they 



THE SPANISH COURT. 69 

begin to dance ; such fairy feet, and such a way of 
using them ! 

It is well to know your Spaniard. " Caress his 
foibles and you will find him charitable, and charm- 
ing ; he is willing to applaud, as he would himself 
be praised. He thinks Spain the country of heroes, 
the glory of centuries, past, present, and to come ! " 
He wraps himself in his cloak, and ignores his 
poverty. He is the last to learn, the first to for- 
get. He is brave, indolent, frugal, honorable. 
Every Spaniard is a gentleman ; his wife is a chat- 
terbox, she is pretty, and polite, yet both will puff 
their cigarettes in one's face ! 

But beware of offending these proud, grave, cere- 
monious Spanish men, or these laughing, gay, 
chatty handsome talking women ! They know how 
to flirt a fan, to fold a cloak, to be graceful, charm- 
ing and agreeable — but not how to forgive. 



IV. 



THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA. 

THERE was a Prince once, who married a 
Royal Girl — it is a fairy story almost, quite 
a Cinderella tale, and as it "ended well," as we 
used to say, and as it also illustrates the value of 
politeness, we may as well tell it here. 

This young Prince, clad in hunting costume, 
was traveling in Bavaria. He was going (rather 
unwillingly, as it afterwards turned out), not only to 
try his luck with his gun, but also to seek out a 
bride who had been chosen for him by his father ; 
in short, he was on his way to the retired chateau 
of the Duke Maximilian Joseph, the cousin of the 
King of Bavaria, who had four handsome daugh- 
ters, the eldest of whom had been selected to be 
the bride of our young huntsman. 

He had reached the borders of the romantic Lake 
70 



THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA. 7 1 

Traun, in the beautiful Bavarian Tyrol. It was a 
scene of enchantment. The high and bold moun- 
tains raised their lofty crests almost angrily as if 
to guard the royal forest fairies from this invader. 
It was as if the old story of Acteon was to be re- 
enacted ; for there, on the bosom of the romantic 
lake he saw a little boat, and in it — Diana her- 
self! 

" Ah ha ! a beautiful young peasant girl to row 
me across the lake!" said he to himself; "but I 
suppose she will be as rude as these mountaineers 
generally are. I must propitiate her with a silver 
groschen." 

The girl sat quietly in her boat, looking in the 
water. As she heard his quick agile steps down 
the mountain, she raised her head, gave him a 
steady, searching gaze. 

" Hullo, my good girl ! " shouted the hunter. 
" Will you row me across the lake ? I am come to 
see the Duke — do you know where he lives ? — 
for I do not. Are you strong enough to pull ? If 
not, give me the oars and you shall steer." 

The young peasant rose, carefully stepped ashore, 



72 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

drew the boat to a convenient landing. She was 
tall, lithe, delicate, but strong, with the most beau- 
tiful little round waist he had ever seen, and with 
two well-developed arms. 

" I can row you across, sir. I know well where 
the Puke lives. Give me your gun — I will lay it 
on my cloak, so that it shall not get wet. Shall I 
assist you into the boat? Be careful — the step is 
a long one." And she reached ou1 a brown, well- 
shaped, beautiful little hand, which even then, the 
Prince observed, was exceedingly well-kept, for a 
peasant. 

••Thanks, my dear!'' said the Prince. "You 
have exceedingly good manners. So you can pull 
me across? I am very pleased, for I am weary 
with my long walk. Wake me up when we reach 
the opposite shore — and take care of the gun — 
will you ? " 

But although the Prince tried to take forty winks, 
as he was being rowed across, his eyes would not 
shut ; they looked on that beautiful face, and on 
the long golden braids which fell from the peasant 
cap. He noticed how grandly this best of all the 



THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA. 73 

physical exercises for girls had developed the 
chest, rounded the arms, invigorated the blood of 
this young creature who, doubtless, made her living 
on the lake. Her coarse common petticoat, the 
stout shoes, the white chemisette, the blue jacket, 
were the ordinary peasant dress of the country ; 
but they could not hide the fine proportions and 
lithe movement, as with even strokes and a thor- 
ough use of the muscles of the back, she pulled 
the oars and made her boat shoot through the 
water. Her composed face and her preoccupied 
modest air checked the compliments which rose to 
his lips, and he admired her in silence. 

It was a long row, and perhaps he did at last 
go off into a delightful dream ! At any rate he 
reached the opposite shore, the girl drew in the 
boat, fastened it to an iron staple, shouldered the 
gun, and, with a smile and bow, motioned him to 
follow her. 

In Europe peasant girls so often render this sort 
of service to travellers, that he did not offer to re- 
lieve her. He walked behind her, as with the free 
graceful step of the peasant of these mountains, 



74 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

she preceded him. Presently, two or three splen- 
did hounds came down the path, barking at the 
stranger. 

" They are not dangerous, sir ! " said she, as she 
noticed that he was clearing the path with his 
alpenstock ; and at her voice they all ceased bark- 
ing, and put their fine heads into his caressing hand. 

When they reached the modest mountain chalet 
of the Duke, she rang a great bell, put down the 
gun, dropped a little curtesy, and had run down 
the hill before the Prince had had time to put the 
coin in her hand. 

But a very grand Heiduc in full Hungarian dress 
was answering the bell, and soon a crowd of 
lackeys were leading the Prince to the presence of 
his host who was expecting him. 

In the ceremonies which followed, in the pres- 
entation to three noble and lofty young ladies, the 
future Emperor of Austria forgot the handsome 
peasant with the polite manner who had rowed 
him across the lake. But just as the dessert was 
placed on the dinner table, a door opened quietly, 
an elderly lady entered, and with her a young girl 







IHF EMIEROR OF AUSTRIA AND KING OF HUNGARY 



THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA. 77 

whose magnificent hair fell to her knees over her 
simple white evening dress. 

"My youngest daughter," said the Duke — in- 
troducing the forest fairy — the young peasant 
boatwoman ! — to the Prince. 

There was a smile, a bow, a look of recognition, 
and then the Prince, with many a blush of awkward 
recollection, told the story of his mistake. How 
could he have done better ? The Duke, a careless 
fond father, laughed at the escapade and told 
Madame Molintz to take better care of her charge 
hereafter. 

" I cannot keep her out of the open air ! " sighed 
the governess. ^ 

Those were romantic days which followed. The 
imagination of the young Prince was kindled. 
The brilliant wit, the natural intelligence, the ex- 
quisite simplicity added to the beauty, the thor- 
ough-bred politeness and grace of this Royal Girl 
won the royal lover. He chose the youngest rather 
than the eldest sister. 

It is said that at first the forest fairy hated the 
stiff and formal etiquette of the Austrian Court. 



7S ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

There, " no person is eligible to a presentation at 
court who has not sixteen quarterings." Imagine 
what a bore to a girl who loved dogs and boats, 
who knew all the trees and birds of the forest, 
who above all things was " crazy about a horse," 
who was the bravest, most fearless of horsewomen 

— how could she learn the dull business of knowing 
all the titles of some old lady-in-waiting ? Vet she 
has done it. She has a royal politeness. She tries 
to never offend these old ladies, or these stiff Aus- 
trian nobles. She lias assiduously cultivated a 
royal memory in order that she may never forget 
a face or a title. 

Now the Empress of Austria does have to work 

— but she also dearly loves to play; and to ride 
on horseback, is her play. 

To her intense devotion for out-of-door exercise 
does she owe the beauty which with the same 
small round waist of a girl of sixteen, with her 
splendid hair in three braids around her head, is 
so remarkable in this mature woman that she is 
the pride of the stiffest and most ceremonious 
court of Europe. So determined is she to pur- 



THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA. 79 

sue even her pleasure correctly and well, that she 
has taken lessons of Mrs. Duckworth the " Queen 
of Circus Riders," in the art of horsemanship. 
She can put her hand on the pommel and vault 
into her saddle. She can ride a barebacked horse 
with safety. She goes to Ireland every autumn 
for the hunting, and leaps a five-barred gate and a 
ditch with the boldest rider to hounds. But, as 
I said, order, system, thought, goes into her indul- 
gence in this favorite pleasure. She is very care- 
ful not to ride too far, nor to fatigue herself. After 
her ride she is extremely careful not to take cold. 
She is carefully rubbed, bathed and wrapped in 
flannel. No detail is beneath her royal attention. 
She has even invented a guantlet glove, known as 
the " Empress of Austria riding glove." 

Such a woman would not be inattentive to the 
education of her children. The Prince Imperial, 
Rudolph, is a well-educated studious gentleman 
who would make his mark in his generation even 
apart from his inherited glories. He has married 
the daughter of the King of Belgium, a quiet and 
unambitious Princess who is also distinguished for 



80 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

her learning and her interest in men and women 
of letters. 

The Empress has but two daughters. The Prin- 
cesses Ottilie and Valerie were very carefully 
trained under an English governess, who says that 
her younger pupil, Valerie, " is the most superbly 
educated woman in Europe, that she is industrious 
and earnest^ with a not over-brilliant mind.'' It is 
the " not over-brilliant " minds which are the minds 
to accumulate knowledge. 

1 1 is said to be a great disappointment to the 
Emperor that none of his children are handsome. 
None of them look like the forest fairy who 
rowed him across the lake. They have the heavy 
thick lips of the House of Hapsburg. There is 
only one Venus in the kindled lluhenzollern 
blood, and that is the Princess of Meiningen ; to 
her Nature has been as prodigal of the gifts of 
beauty as to the Empress, but alas ! not to Ottilie 
and Valerie. The present Queen of Spain, Chris- 
tina, is a niece of the Emperor of Austria. She is 
not beautiful, but has a sort of gypsy-like charm. 
It is said that her royal uncle is very fond of her. 



THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA. 83 

In the dominions of the Amazon Empress the 
Princess Metternich who is an Austrian, finds 
herself very much at home (more so than in 
Paris), petting the hounds. She and the Em- 
press go a-hunting in Bohemia where their skill 
in handling a gun is much admired. Unlike the 
majority of modern Amazons they are very re- 
gardless of their appearance on these expeditions. 
A short gray skirt, a darker jacket, a straw hat 
and a pair of boots is their hunting outfit, in which 
costume the Empress looks like an angel in dis- 
guise, but the Princess Metternich, who describes 
herself as " singed la mode (a fashionable monkey) " 
as she is indeed very ugly, really look.^ danger- 
ously so now; the two ladies of such exalted 
rank have but one ambition — to show "a good 
bag of game " at the end of the day. 

A \ iennese gentleman gives an amusing account 
of the visit of the Czarina of Russia, Dagmar, to 
the Empress, Elizabeth of Austria. The Czarina 
is passionately fond of dancing. She can tire out 
several partners when she gives balls at Gatchina, 
or St. Petersburg. The Empress of Austria hates 



84 R< »VAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

balls and dancing, and sighs for her Mrs. Duck- 
worth, her horses, and her hunting, and the life at 
Kremsier, her home in the mountains. So while 
attending to the Czarina, and trying to satisfy the 
stiff Austrian ladies who were in attendance she 
still yawned behind her fan ! 

But the two Royalties finally hit on a topic of 
mutual interest. Theygot talkingof their girlhood, 
when they both led a country life, very cramped 
as to money. The Empress declared that she 
was obliged to take her turn at the dairy work 
with her sisters, and that .she learned to groom a 
horse and to superintend the stables. The I 
ina boasted of her skill i k, ami 

her success in pickling and preserving. The 
small country-house in Schleswig, which was the 
home of the Princess of Wales and the Empress 

of all the Russias, was described gayly, with its 
small economies. She told a good story of how 
the whole tribe of the Landgravine Hesses came 
to dinner, and that she, Dagmar, made all theentrees. 
The Empress of Austria responded with like anec- 
dotes of the retired chateau, of her father, the 



THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA. 85 

Duke Maximilian Joseph. Finally both ladies got 
into a gale of laughter, which alarmed the stiff 
guardians of public etiquette, the Viennese ladies 
of sixteen quarterings — who think that an Em- 
press is a being of superior blood, above mirth 
and tears, and who associate a regal condition 
only with a stately step and proud air. They think 
that an Empress is the chief figure in a perpetual 
int. and should be " surtout gentil" 
The Czarina, who is naturally light-hearted, and 
of a bird-like disposition, who likes to go a shop- 
ping, and the Empress of Austria — who is, as we 
have seen, fond of out-of-doors — these two re- 
belled a little, doubtless; finally, however, the 
Czar and the Emperor saw the situation, and, 
approaching their royal wives, asked "win- this 
unseemly mirth at a court ball ? " "< )h." said the 
Empress, " we were trying t<> remember how happy 
we were before you two introduced us to all this 
wearisome grandeur."' 

The position of Americans is not a pleasant one 

in Austria. The late Mr. Motley, himself a favorite 



86 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

at the court from his charm of manner and splen- 
did intelligence, could never get the stiff Austrian 
Court to accept all his countrymen ; hence he got 
into trouble. But, as some Secretary of Legation 
said, " If they insist on sixteen quarterings for an 
Austrian, they insist on sixty-four for an Ameri- 
can ; " so that as we have no quarterings at all, 
we can only succeed at Vienna by being clever, 
well-bred, intelligent, and polite — four quarterings 
which look well on any shield. 

The Court of Austria is in direct contrast to 
that of Italy ; the latter is the most demoi vatic of 
all the European Courts, the former, the most dig- 
nified, stately, and unapproachable — a thousand 
walls of old-world etiquette must be scaled. First 
they are alike in being the homes of the most beau- 
tiful Royal women in Europe ; and if the Em- 
press could have her way, she would undoubtedly 
welcome Americans at her court. She speaks 
English perfectly — indeed almost all Viennese 
aristocrats do that. Vienna is a gay and pleas- 
ure-loving town, a miniature Taris, and the Royal 
Family are very popular. The Austrians espe- 



THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA. 87 

dally respect Prince Rudolph and speak volumes 
of his "hard-working and conscientious- learned 
mind." They tell you anecdotes of the acquire- 
ments of the Princess Valerie, they are proud of 
their proud Emperor, but they love and rave over 
their beautiful Empress Elizabeth, the Forest 
Fairy, who rowed her way to a throne. 



"carmen sylva, queen of roumania. 

OF the gifted and intelligent women who have 
won names of renown for royal qualities of 
heart and brain, and who have supplemented to 

them the distinction of a throne, we have no more 
conspicuous example than the reigning Queen of 
Roumania, that "country of surprises." 

We used to hear of this particular bit of g 
raphv as the " United Principalities ; " but the in- 
habitants of this romantic country always have 
insisted on calling it " Roumania."' After the 
Crimean War, Alexander John Cuza, a tyrannical 
and brutal colonel in the army, was elected Prince 
of Moldavia and Wallachia, and thus the present 
country called " Roumania" was made. But the 
people, clamoring for reforms, turned out the tyrant 

Prince Cuza, and elected the Comte de Handee to 
SS 



"CARMEN SYLVA," QUEEN OF ROUMANIA. 89 

be Prince. The Great Powers, Russia and Austria, 
had decided that no foreigner should ascend the 
Roumanian throne. But they were destined to be 
surprised. They were to hear one day, that Prince 
Charles of Hohenzollern, entering the United Prin- 
cipalities disguised as the valet of Monsieur Brati- 
ano, had made a solemn entry into Bucharest, May 
22, 1866, while those interested in watching him, 
namely Russia and Austria, supposed him to be in 
his chateau at Dusseldorf. Prince Charles of 
Hohenzollern "was a Prince with a future " evi- 
dently. ( >nce as he was going up a staircase, 
in Russia, a young lady slipped on the top 
stair, and came tumbling down into his arms! 
That was his future Queen; so he has been sur- 
prised into both a wife and a Kingdom without 
much trouble to himself, apparently. When, how- 
ever, as a young unmarried Prince, he accepted 
the governorship of Roumania, it was a wild and 
savage country, hemmed in between Russia and 
Austria, and oppressed by both. Servia and Rou- 
mania were also vassals of Turkey, under the guar- 
antee of Europe. What wonder that roads were 



90 AL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

neglected, taxes enforced, education suppre 
civilization impeded — the Principalities stilled! 

Still, the inhabitants were a noble, free set of 

mountaineers, full of genius and courage and pict- 

ie possibilities. Since their independence 

their country has been well called, " The Belgium of 
the East." Their little army saved Russia, b< 
Plevna. The world shouted over that rally at the 
Grivetsa redoubt; and when in [88i Charles and 
Elizabeth were afterwards crowned King and 
Queen at Bu< barest, the world said, " Roumania is 
the tir.st kingdom called into being by the red, or 
radical principle." It outranks in physical impor- 
tance, Portugal, Denmark, Holland and Greece; 
ami. mena< ed as it has been, it m »w promises, under 
the wise rule of its present monarch, to become a 
marvellous example of political and social prog 

5e who have heard Rubenstein's splendid 
musical c< imposition called the " Sulamite," will not 
be unprepared to believe that a noble character in- 
spired the musician, and it is with those ringing 
chords that we appropriately introduce our Royal 
Girl to whom it was dedicated — " Elizabeth Paul- 



"CARMEN SYLVA, QUEEN OF ROUMANIA. 91 

ine Attilia, Queen of Roumania," known by her 
title which she has won for herself, "Carmen 
Sylva " — the singer of the woods. 

Her parents were both remarkable people. The 
Prince of Wied married the Duchess of Nassau. 
They had three children of whom Elizabeth Paul- 
ine was the eldest. They lived at Neuwied, were 
in great retirement and in sorrow (for they were 
1) ith invalids) they educated their remarkable child. 
The Prince of Wied had been a great traveller, in 
his youth, and was rather dreaded amongst the 
Royalties of Europe for his progressive ideas, many 
of which he declared he had brought from America, 
ive his daughter the training of a man, and 
she records, as her earliest ambition, that she de- 
sired to be a schoolmistress. She was also passion- 
ately fond of out-of-door exerci.se, was fed and 
clothed simply, and declared that the hardest lesson 
she had ever had to learn was how to enjoy luxury. 
She showed in these early days a power of concen- 
tration in study, which amazed her tutors. She 
had all the feminine graces, she had poetic and 
brilliant fancies, but she could conquer a tough 



92 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

problem in philosophy, a hard sum in algebra, and 
the root of a Greek verb — " like a man." 

Her father from his sick bed wrote : " I have 
no better companion in my studies than my little 
girl, who has the gift of continuous thought." 

Elizabeth was soon to have added on to her < >ther 
educational advantages, a tutor of Heaven's own 
choosing — Sorrow, the best teacher for those who 
are to rule over the destiny of others. 1 [er younger 
brother, always an invalid, and therefore the more 
dearly loved by her, died; and this deepened and 
intensified her nature. She sorrowed for him so 
intensely that she lost her health, and her mother 
took her to Russia, to her aunt the Grand Duchess 
Helene, one of the most liberal and intellectual 
women of her da v. 

In that splendid salon, she met not only all that 
was most gorgeous and powerful in the Court Cir- 
cle, but also the grandest intellectualities of all king- 
doms. There came the poets, musicians, novelists, 
architects, statesmen ; there she met the painters, 
sculptors, and essayists; Tourganieff, Samoiloff, 
Zichy, Lavozzaeri, Vladimir, Rubenstein, all talked 



"carmen sylva, queen of roumania. 93 

with the beautiful Princess of the flashing eyes ; 
and in this house she tumbled down stairs into the 
arms of Prince Charles, the future king of Rou- 
mania ! 

But sorrow again came in between Elizabeth 
and joy. She heard of the death of her beloved 
congenial father, and again she fell into a long ill- 
ness. It was a pale and sad girl who in 1S69, con- 
sented to become a bride. With what conscientious 
solemnity these two noble young people joined 
hands, can be best learned by the words <>l" Prince 
Charles to the beautiful Elizabeth, in his betrothal : 
" You must comfort tenderly where I have boon too 
harsh, and you may petition for all \" He knew his 
own nature. 

\\ 'lien the Roumanians desired to become an in- 
dependent nation the)- decided that a Kingdom 
would be safer than a Republic. It was a neces- 
sity of the situation. Such men as Rosetti and 
Bratiano rallied round the King, and gave the 
country a liberal constitution. Heaven had already 
sent them " Carmen Sylva," whom they call their 
"little mother." On March 26, 1SS1, the Great 



94 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Powers heard with surprise that the Chambers had 
voted the Kingdom by acclamation. Russia was 
mourning for her murdered Czar, Austria was re- 
luctant to acknowledge the new Royalty, but the 
now aroused and united Roumanians were too 
strong to be put down. ''Look at us now." they 
asked. "Look at our improved commerce, our 
books printed in all the Ian E Europe, our 

schools, our roads, our homes ! The security of 
life and of property ! Look at our Prin 
who has founded itals, < '<><, king- 

schools, Soup Kitchens, Art Galleries, and Art 
Schools. She has taught our women again to spin, 
to weave, to embroider, to wear the national cos- 
tume — she wears it herself. She has given us 
popular lectures and sanitary laws, she has learned 
to read and write Roumanian, she has made herself 
acquainted with the needs of her Kingdom." 

Alas, and alas '. working for others, livinganoble 
and useful life. Heaven again visited this woman 
with the heaviest sorrow which a woman's heart 
can know. She lost her only child. 

Then, for four years, she suffered almost death. 



"CARMEN SYLVA, QUEEN OF ROUMANIA. 95 

almost a severe paralysis ; but cured by the won- 
derful Dr. Metzgar, of Scheveningen, she emerged, 
strong, useful, beautiful, and with all the power of 
her enlightened intellect consecrated anew for her 
work and her Kingdom. 

The Russo-Turkish War, in which Roumania 
fought for its life-blood, gave her a fresh occasion 
for the most noble self-sacrifice. In the dress of 
a Red Cross Nurse the beautiful Princess lived in 
the Hospitals, shunning no duty no matter how re- 
pellent. Conquering a constitutional aversion to 
the sight of blood, this noble creature spent her 
days and nights in attendance on the dying, and 
on the wounded, until the physicians held their 
breath in amazement. The old story of Florence 
Nightingale — the M soldiers kissing her shadow as 
she passed " — was repealed ; and when Roumania 
had bought a right to assert independence and to 
proclaim itself a monarchy with her for its Queen, 
the grateful army voted a Memorial Group to 
their beloved Carmen Sylva. This sculpture repre- 
sents her in her ambulance dress, tendering a drink 
of water to a wounded soldier. 



9/) ROYAL GIRLS VND ROYAL COURTS. 

Then came the coronation of the King and 
Queen, in the Palace at Bucharest. What a mo- 
ment for the poetess, for " ( larmen Sylva " ! The 
peasantry, in the most striking national costume in 
the world, flocked to do homage. I Cow the remote 
,\ hen there had been Kings of Roumania — 
"Michael the Brave," and " Stephen the Great," 
almost as mythical as King Arthur, as Homer's 
3 — how they must have risen before her! 
She must have remembered well those sad days 
when the Roumanians were vassals of Turkey, 
and the Queens had received the conse< rated 
anointing from the hands of the Metropolitan, the 
Creek Patriarch of Constantinople. No doubt all 
this tine and picturesque Past knelt with her, as .she 
took the imperial oath and passed from Princess 
to Queen. 

Her woman's wit rescued the ceremonious Lord 
Ili-di Chamberlains from a difficultv at the very 
moment of the coronation. She is a Protestant, the 
King is a Catholic. She was obliged to be mar- 
ried to him/our times; first according to the Ger- 
man civil code, then according to the Lutheran, her 



"carmen sylva, queen of roumania. 97 

own religion, then according to the Greek Church 
which is the creed of their Kingdom, then accord- 
ing to the Catholic Church which is the creed of 
the King. No one who has not lived in Europe, 
and at Courts, can conceive of the amount of red 
tape wound about a marriage so complicated. 

Now who should crown the newly-made King 
and Queen ? The Metropolitan Greek Patriarch 
i ould not touch either a Catholic or a Protestant. 
There were mountainous difficulties about the style 
of the ceremonial. She solved it all. " Let the 
ceremony lie symbolic," she said. "Consecrate 
the crowns ; they have no creeds. Let us, who are 
but the representatives of the Nation, let us con- 

rate ourselves t<> the service of the people." 
Thus nobly spake this " Royal Girl." Thus with 
a .sensible phrase she swept away the cobwebs of 
.in old-world etiquette, and relieved the nation of 
the awkwardness of asking the Greek Patriarch of 
Constantinople to anoint with Holy Oil the sover- 
eigns who were neither of his faith or his religion. 
He could not have done it. Put Roumania was 
satisfied if the crowns were consecrated. They 



98 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

were taken to the cathedral the night before the 
coronation, were received and blessed by the 
clergy, were watched by the Heroes of Plevna — 
who are distinguished by bravery — and were car- 
ried by them to the scene of the coronation, when 
they were placed on the heads of Charles, King of 
Roumania, and of Elizabeth, his Royal Spouse. 

The crown for the King was made of steel 
wrought out of the cannon captured at Plevna, 
Turkish cannon ; the workmen at the arsenal made 
an elegant bit of work of this tempered steel. The 
best goldsmith in Bucharest claimed the right to 
fashion the Queen's crown of purest gold, beauti- 
fully chased, but at her orders, without one .single 
precious stone ; and when it was finished and placed 
on that fair broad brow, in which the lines of sor- 
row are distinctly written, she knelt and did hom- 
age to her lord and King and husband, whispering, 
" Remember \ that Kings arc made for Nations." 
Although a stiff unsympathetic Hohenzollern, the 
King is a brave man, a good soldier, a truly pru- 
dent, patient ruler. He shares his wife's tastes 
for architecture, and for wood carving, and in their 










ELIZA1 MANIA 



"CARMEN SYLVA, QUEEN OF ROUMANIA. IOI 

leisure moments, they have built a picturesque 
palace in the mountains, called Sinaia. There the 
music-room is entirely surrounded by carved wood 
stalls like those in a cathedral. The Queen did much 
of the wood-carving herself. " These wood-carv- 
ings," says one who has seen them, " are suggested, 
but not copied from those of the sixteenth century, 
and lend to the Palace a unique individuality.'' 

The Queen's intelligent appreciation of the arts 
has filled the Palace with choice pictures, fabrics 
of Eastern embroidery, and stained glass windows 
whose subjects arc taken from old Roumanian 
poetry, and legend. " A poet on a throne has re- 
alized her dreams." The Roumanian native archi- 
. painters and decorators have been employed, 
so far as it was possible, in this enchanted castle 
of Sinaia. 

She is a superb musician, and at twilight, in 
this glorious music-room which she has built, she 
often improvises on the organ. She plays it like a 
master. Doubtless she needs this consolation 
much. She has many dreary hours, this Queen, 
many irksome duties to perform, and from her ear- 



102 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

liest youth, music has been her great resource. She 
took lessons as a girl, of Rubenstein, and of Mad- 
ame Schumann, and has never let her fingers 
" grow rusty," as musicians saw Married in 1868, 
and accompanying her husband, Prince Charles, to 
his position as ruler of Roumania (Prince but not 
yet King), she had to learn the new duty of obedi- 
ence to him, and obedience to etiquette. Her child 
was born in 1870, and she had four years of great 
happiness ; but an epidemic of scarlet fever, which 
raged in Bucharest, reached the Palace and carried 
off this only child, as we have seen — a blow from 
which she will not recover. 

So from these sad memories she takes refuge at 
her organ, at her desk, in her poems, and in her 
books, which breathe that noble aspiration for free- 
dom which perhaps her father learned in America. 
If we have had any national share in forming 
this noble character of "Carmen Sylva " we may 
be indeed grateful without any charge of vanity. 

We now come to the literary achievements of 
this wonderful woman, though she has lived her 
best poem, not written it. Her verses are graceful 



"carmen sylva," queen of roumania. 103 



and of the purest ideality ; they are not however 
those of an Elizabeth Barrett Browning. One of 
her most admiring critics says of her that she has 
needed the hard discipline of failure — " to do 
battle with the exigencies, caprices and uncertain- 
ties of publishers and editors." It has been her 
literary loss to be a Queen. She has however made 
a good version of the popular myth of the ki Wan- 
dering Jew," and in it, given expression to a new 
idea, " that the Jew was trying to believe in Christ 
— that he could not die until he did believe." She 
has also written a book dedicated to her fellow 
women, called Stiirme, full of emotional poems. 
We give here an entirely fresh translation of one 
of them. 

TO MY SISTERS. 

You, having heart and soul to bear 
The trials of that thing, called Life — 

Whose brows the scars of sorrow wear 
The woes of health, from Passion's strife — 

You, who through nights — when tempests rage 
Can lift your head, and e'en your heart, 



104 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

And in the earnest fight for wage 

Can with the noblest bear your part — 

You, women, bringing joy and smiles 

Forever! like the generous Mm 
And bearing forth with winsome wiles 

From man and earth the guerdon won ! 

You, who in si rdens bear 

And kneeling, gently kis^ the rod 
What crowns eternal shall you wear 

When, pilgrim clad, you mount to God! 

Illustrious Saints — without a name. 

You v. .il mountains climb ! 

— You Heroes, whom no shouts proclaim — 

Sisters, accept my simple rhyme. 

So sings in her Royal solitude, Carmen Sylva. 

Her biographer says well, that in these poems she 
has caught the "warm, homely, fanciful tone which 
distinguishes German lyricism from that of other na- 
tions, but these defy translation ; they lose so much 
when they give tip their aroma of national speech." 
She lias a fantastic streak in her many-sided 
nature, loves the realm of the Hobgoblins. She- 
has written a queer poem called " Die Ilexe," sug- 



"carmen sylva," queen of roumania. 105 

gested by the statue of a Fair Demon, exhibited in 
Paris in 1878. She here ascends into the weird 
world where Poe reigns supreme. Although her 
feeling is full of German romanticism, mythology, 
fairy lore and demonology, she has not yet reached 
that executive ability as a poet to make her mark 
where Goethe, Werner, and Schiller, William God- 
win and Poe have left their powerful silhouettes. 
She has too much facility and too many ambitions. 
Her translations from the Roumanian Poets, Vas- 
eli<>, Alecsandri, Fminesca, Neguezzi, and Schu- 
banescu, are much admired in Germany. She has 
given these poets a European eminence. Perhaps 
the prettiest story of her literary life, is of her 
having in three weeks written in the Roumanian 
tongue a volume of Folk Lore, illustrating it with 
her own pencil, for the children of the National 
Schools. In her dedication, she tells them "that 
the proudest of her Kingdoms, is one which they 
also own, the Kingdom of Fan 

We have spoken much of her experience of sor- 
row. After the death of her child, her poems be- 
came even more deeply sorrowful ; she has written 



lo6 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

a book called Sorrow's Earthly Pilgrimage^ a series 
of disconnected stories, allegorical, but very pretty, 
ending one of them with the expressive phrase, 
" Sorrow took me by the hand, and led me onward," 
yes, and, e'en unselfishly upward ! 

The Queen is very proud of her ability to write 
well in French. She realizes its precious qualities 
of accuracy and neat wit. A French journalist, 
Albach, has collected her detached sentences, and 
published them under the form of Les Pefts/es (Tune 
Reine. These are very remarkable, quite the best 
things she has done. They are like all that she 
writes, full of sadness, perhaps a little cynical, a 
curious trait in a character so full of generous im- 
pulses, but one of her biographers explains this 
by saying that as a Queen, surrounded by llatter- 
ers, she sees men and women in their least noble 
attitude. We are inclined to differ from this view, 
and to believe that so powerful a mind may be 
occasionally a little wanting in the balance which 
makes one always recognize the universal good in 
a world of woe. One of her aphorisms is very 
witty : 



" CARMEN SYLVA," QUEEN OF ROUMANIA. 107 

It is better to have a doctor for a father confessor than a 
priest; you tell the priest that you detest mankind ; he tells 
you that you are not a Christian. The doctor gives you 
some quinine, and behold you love everybody. You tell the 
pi iest that you are tired of life ; the priest answers, " Suicide 
is a crime." You tell the doctor the same thing and he gives 
you a stimulant; then you begin to love life very much. 

Here are more of these Penst 

Man is a violin. Not until the last chord is broken does 
he become a piece of wood. 

Lite is an art in which we too often remain amateur; to 
become master, one must shed his heart's blood. 

( »iic- is not weary of life, but dreadfully wearv of one's self. 

Sice]) is a generous robber. What he steals from your 
time, he gives to your strength. 

tradiction is the soul of conversation, that is one rea- 
son why Courts are so stupid. 

When we affirm something of which we are not certain we 
call God to witness that what we have said is true. Is that 
because lie never contradicts us ? 

One is pious, and philosophical, saying, " Thy will be done 
— or Nature, I respectyour laws, even when 1 break them." 

The habits of this extraordinary woman are very 
peculiar, She rises at four in the morning and 



T08 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

works until eight at her desk. After that hour she 
is at the service of her people. She often talks, 
receives guests, and serves the King in matters of 
state, for fifteen hours on a stretch. 

Evenings are devoted to balls, dinners, and 
theatres, for Bucharest is a gay city, and the King 
and Queen dike the Prince of Wales) mi; 
everywhere. She never gels mure than four hours' 

sleep. 

( )ne cannot help wondering if this has not some- 
thing to do with the cynicism of her Pens/es, and 

if she would iini do well to follow her own pre- 
scription, and take her doctor for her father con- 
fessor. 

Her summer at Sinaia, at her beautiful castle 
in the Carpathian Mountains, of which we have 
spoken, is not a rest ; it is only a more fatiguing 
court ceremonial, except for a few weeks in the 
autumn, when she takes a much needed retreat. 

It may interest American readers to know that 
the first novel which she read was the Wide, Wide 
World, by .Miss Warner, a book of which she re- 
tains a lively memory. She is very fond of Dickens ; 



"CARMEN SYLVA, QUEEN OF ROUMANIA. 109 

indeed one can well imagine that a nature like 
hers, so human, so loving, so generous, perhaps 
also a little fantastic, but so real, would take to the 
creator of Little Nell, Dick Swiveller, Sam Weller 
and Paul Dombey. She cannot bear " surface talk." 
She is a natural-born questioner, knows how to get 
at all that is best in her companions, and although 
a voluble and tempestuous talker, she is also a good 
listener. She is said to have acquired Dr. John- 
son's art of " tearing out the heart of a book," she 
reads so rapidly. If she lacks any virtue it is 
patience; all her tendencies are toward rapid 
thought, energetic work and freedom. Like the 
out-of-door Empress of Austria, she is a gypsy 
caught in the network of Royalty. Fortunately for 
her kingdom, she has a fine nature and a wonder- 
ful sympathy, else she would be a dangerous Queen. 
Her impetuosity however causes her to commit no 
greater crimes than a few false quantities in her 
verses, a too great liberality in her expenditures, 
not for herself, but for charity. She gives away 
the clothes from her own wardrobe, and undoubt- 
edly commits the most unwise spendthrift generos- 



IIO ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

ity with her own brain and her nervous energy, 
for she uses them too freely. 

She says that she is glad that " she was born far 
from a throne," that she had the advantages of a 
farm life, a knowledge of animals, of the life of the 
poor, and also the privileges of romping through an 
untrammeled girlhood. She saw life as it was, the 
sterner and sadder side first, then its pomps and 
vanities, then and always, its duties. Heaven gave 
her its most perilous gift, Genius; it is doubtful if 
so richly freighted a bark ever sails the sea in ease 
and safety, but she has had the compass of a good 
conscience. " Ours is by no means an easy throne 
to fill," she says ; " we are not old and established, 
but strangers in the land. We must try to gain 
the favor and good will of all." 

One of her most picturesque duties has been to 
found a school of embroidery in which the old 
Byzantine patterns were carefully reproduced. The 
Roumanian women were in clanger of losing their 
national reputation for spinning and weaving and 
tor embroidery, but with a Queen for a patron, and 
one who herself wears the national costume, they 



"CARMEN sylva," QUEEN OF ROUMANIA. Ill 



have become again the well-dressed industrious 
skilful Penelopes that they were. She wears a veil 
over her costume as a mark of queenly dignity. She 
has made it obligatory that at the annual charity 
balls at Bucharest the national costumes be worn. 

It must be a romance worth reading — her mem- 
ory of her own life ! Her wise mother, to counteract 
her too fantastic dreamy imagination caused a farm 
to be laid out at Neuwied, where Elizabeth and her 
brothers tilled the ground, milked the cows, cut the 
grain, raised chickens. She was taught to cook, 
and was famed for her broth and beef tea later in the 
Hospitals. She can use her needle as well as her 
pen, and the carving tools admirably. She reads 
and writes German, French, English, Latin and 
Roumanian, thoroughly, and has a conversational 
knowledge of Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Italian. 
"It is nothing to learn a language," she says. 

To-day courtly admirers find much of the woods 
and fields in her unsophisticated grace, in the 
directness and originality of her speech. She has 
never learned to be tamely conventional. Perhaps 
for that reason the Roumanians like her better 



112 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

than they do her stiff German husband. But al- 
though she never mingles in politics, she makes 
herself felt in every part of her kingdom. 

She was born in 1843. She is therefore no 
longer a very young woman. She is about forty- 
three years old, of very handome presence, with 
dark blue eyes, dark lashes and hair, with white 
teeth and a commanding alert figure. She is 
blessed with a "lovable magnetic presence," a 
rich sympathetic voice. She is in the very prime 
of her womanhood, of her energy and her wonder- 
ful industry. The institutions which she has 
founded amongst a lazy oriental and it is to be 
feared rather dirty people are enough to bear prac- 
tical testimony to her energetic love for her nation. 
When she first went amongst her diri_\- but pictur- 
esque subjects her Dutch love of cleanliness was 
horribly shocked. She is a daughter of the blue 
and lordly Rhine, she loves fresh air and cold water, 
and indeed is a sp< Undine in her passion 

for cold baths. No Roumanian ever washes him- 
self if he can help it, and the peasants allowed 
their sheepskin garments to slough off as a serpent 



"CARMEN SYLVA," QUEEN OF ROUMANIA. 113 

changes its skin ; but with sympathy and fine tact, 
she has changed all this. She has taught them re- 
spect for sanitary laws, so that their miserable mud 
villages, are no longer miserable or decimated with 
fever, nor are the once poor diseased children left 
to die. The Memorial Hospital to that little Prince 
of Hohenzollern saves a thousand lives yearly. 



VI. 

THE " LILIES OF FRANCE." 

IN nothing do all Royal Girls so differ trom 
American girls as in the absolute habit of punct- 
uality. A famous painter in Paris recently com- 
pleted a picture of two French young ladies, one 
the daughter of the Count de Paris, the other a 
daughter of the Ducde Chartres, princesses of the 
house of Orleans; he said to a lady that they " were 
the only two sitters who never kept him waiting! " 
At a dinner party in England, a very beautiful 
American girl once kept the whole company wait- 
ing half an hour. When she entered, the hostess 
was prepared for an excuse, but the young lady 
looked at the clock, and remarked : " Half an hour 
behind time ! Well, I was having such a jolly 
row on the Thames ! and I knew if I was not 

worth waiting for I was not worth anything.'' 
114 



THE "LILIES OF FRANCE." n 5 

"Ah!" sighed an English Duchess behind her 
fan, " how very American ! not one of the Queen's 
daughters ever kept anybody waiting; but if she 
had done so, she would have apologized." 

This is a "courtesy of Kings," this habit of 
punctuality. It is a virtue inculcated in courts. 
The royal family of England are remarkable for 
it; and the descendants of Louis Philippe —edu- 
cated by Madame de Genlis, whose books written 
for her royal pupils might be read now with advan- 
tage, although somewhat old-fashioned — have all 
brought up their families to respect these traditions. 
Nothing perhaps could better illustrate our mean- 
ing than by making further the acquaintance of the 
two "Lilies of France," as they are called — the 
Princess Ame'lie and her cousin, the Princess Marie. 
Punctuality, obedience, the most thoughtful and 
thorough disposal of every hour of the day has 
been the regulation laid down for these Royal 
Girls since they left the nursery. Their English 
governess, a very superior woman, says that it is 
not "half so hard to train a Princess as to edu- 
cate the daughter of an American nouveau richc, 



Il6 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

for that the Princess is taught to be perfectly sub- 
missive, which the American girl never is." 

Attractive, graceful and simple, the two young 
Princesses were seen just before the wedding of 
the eldest to Prince Waldemar, at a royal f£te 
by their grand-uncle, the Due d'Aumale, himself a 
pupil of M idame de Genlis' system of instruction; 
for Louis Philippe, called the " Bourgeois King," 
had no1 forgotten her precepts, and in his hard 
life of exile had been obliged to try the efficacy of 
some of th vity trades" by which she b< 

that she could have made a living by the applica- 
tion of any of them. 

The One d'Aumale, from his grace and elegance, 
his talent and refinement, has been called an 
"Athenian of Paris." Ai his grand old feuda 
chateau of C'hantilly, near Paris, he likc^ to assem 
ble the members of the Ho >e of Orleans. Thij 
semi-royal residence is the best example of the rea 
old chateau in France. Versailles and Fontaine 
bleau are museums. Chambord and Blois are de 
serted, and it would require a lively imagination to 
re-people them with the glories of the past. Com- 



THE "LILIES OF FRANCE." 117 

piegne has no character ; it was but a feeble imi- 
tation at best when Eugenie lived in it. But Chan- 
tilly is real, and all the glories of the House of 
Conde' are visible in its unrivalled collections. But 
nothing in it is so precious as the two young girls 
who are often invited to visit their grand-uncle. 
What, indeed, in any house, is so precious as the 
young daughter of the house ? what so worth time 
and trouble ? To educate her, to make of her a 
refined and lovely woman — that is the best busi- 
ness of the human race. 

These delicate Royal Girls, with profiles like 
Psyche, haw had the severe training of a cadet at 
a military academy. The}- have been called at 
six to take a cold bath, to go through a calisthenic 
exercise ; they have then gone to the private chapel 
to hear mass, lor religious training has much to 
do with education in this royal family; they have 
then devoted certain hours to music, drawing, 
painting and sculpture, all under the wise oversight 
of their fathers, both painstaking persons, who did 
not allow them to be crammed, but really taught 
under a governess with wist experience in teaching. 



Il8 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Their education has been pursued exactly on 
the principles of public education in France, writ- 
ing from dictation in four modern languages, pur- 
suing arithmetic, geography and history. Great 
attention is paid in France to the formation of a 
beautiful handwriting, which is totally unlike ours, 
or the English hand; it is small, and neat as cop- 
perplate. For a Royal Girl particularly, the- busi- 
ness of writing notes is a serious matter, and indeed 
no girl can afford to ignore the " admirable service 
of the pen," both as to external and internal excel- 
lence. Both the " Lilies of France" write exquis- 
ite notes. 

In their schoolroom, as little girls, they wore the 
sarrau, a long black apron, like the girls .it an ex- 
tcrnc, or public school, to keep their dresses neat 
through the exposures of blackboards, ink, pen, 
pencil, paint, or plaster. Like the poorest child in 
Paris, they were made to earn the medal for la 
sagesst, and for proficiency in study. 

If they were good, they were taken to the 
Jardins d'Acclimatation to see the animals on one of 
the holidays, when the children of the public schools 



THE "LILIES OF FRANCE." 119 

were allowed to go. These Royal Girls were en- 
couraged to save their pocket money — not to buy 
the waxen dolls so dear to American children (all 
dressed out to rival an Empress), but to give treats 
to the children of the poor. Simply dressed, their 
rank unsuspected, the little Lilies of France would 
buy for some thirsty child a drink from the foun- 
tain of liquorice water, or a taste of cream cheese 
with sugar on it, fruit, cake, or bonbons, or better 
still a ride on the Merry-go-round. 

Now they are grown up, and the result of this 
education is apparent in their charming singing, 
their beautiful manners, their many accomplish- 
ments by which they make themselves the chief 
entertainers at the splendid Chateau of Chantilly ; 
but they still find their best amusement in going 
oft in the early morning with their attendants to 
minister to the wants of the poor people. There 
is neither assumption, arrogance or pretense in the 
manners of these Royal Girls. They have been 
taught that a bow, smile, recognition of the most 
gracious kind, is clue from highest to lowest. They 
have all the French fascination of manner, as well 



120 ROYAL GIRLS AND RQYAL COURTS. 

as those sterner virtues for which their mothers, 
grandmothers and aunts have been distinguished. 

Of these two lovely cousins one is now married, 
the other affianced. The Princess Marie was mar- 
ried in October to the Prince Waldemar of Den- 
mark, and is a sister-in-law to the Empress of Rus- 
sia and to the Princess of Wales. When Prince 
Waldemar was being taken to call on the Duchesse 
de Chartres, by the Danish Ambassador, Count de 
Moltke, he looked up at a window where four or five 
girls were peeping. (Princesses are mortal !) 

" That young girl in blue has the sweetest face," 
whispered the Prince to the Ambassador. 

Count de Moltke smiled. Cupid had shot his 
arrow straight, for that was the Princess Marie. 
This Royal Girl has artistic talents of a high order ; 
she painfs admirably in water colors. The Duch- 
esse de Chartres has taught her daughters herself, 
and at the Due's Parisian hotel, the Duchesse has 
a studio fitted up for work. The ladies of this 
family all keep up the traditions of the domestic 
virtues and home training inculcated by the wife 
of Louis Philippe and her admirable daughters, one 



THE "LILIES OF FRANCE. 12 1 

of whom was a sculptress and made that pretty 
statue of Joan of Arc so familiarly known. There is 
another daughter of the Due de Chartres, Princess 
Marguerite, who is as accomplished a pianist as 
the elder sister is an artist. Prince Philippe, the 
eldest son, is a beauty of the type of the romantic 
Valois family. 

The wedding of the Princess Marie took place 
at the chapel of the Chateau d'Eu. It was a great 
and splendid scene, for the Orleanist Princes are 
enormously rich, and the jewels were magnificent. 
The Due de Chartres gave his daughter a set of 
wild roses in diamonds, and the Due d'Aumale, her 
royal uncle, the richest man in France, gave her 
diamonds and emeralds and rubies as plentifully 
as if they were blackberries. The Princess is a 
sweet, fresh, fair young woman with sunny hair. 
Prince Waldemar is also a blonde, about twenty-six 
years old and very good looking. 

Another virtue which is inculcated in courts 
amongst young Princes and Princesses would well 
become young Republicans — parental reverence 
and respect for old age. The family relations in 



122 ROYAL GIRLS AND R rtS. 

France are especially beautiful ; thai iwn-up 

son to his mother is a thing to be studied and 
copied. The Princesses Ame'lie and Marie kiss 
theirmothers' hands when they bid them good-night, 
and they bend over their old uncle and press their 
fresh lips to his forehead. 

It is certain that amongst all foreign u r ' : 
good family we see great stress laid upon the morn- 

:id evening salutation to parents; and that 
among us Recognition and Salutation are i 
vulgarized and barbarously maimed by a certain 
coarsenessof manner which is thought to be frank- 
'. ship, or perhaps a stylish as- 
sumption of the over-cordial ; it is also certain that 
it is possible to CO] if manner without 

g a partis nuine truth and independ- 

ence, to be gracious without being servile, to be 

51 without being rude. 
Why should the American school-girl be above 
taking lessons from these Royal Girls of France? 
For one thing, let her listen to their \ From 

their secluded and carefully-watched school: 
they issue, speaking in a low sweet voice. It is 



THE "LILIES OF FRANCE." 123 

modulated carefully, so that it will not offend the 
most fastidious ear. It is still natural, and most 
girlish, the laugh particularly so. 

Nor is a Royal Girl ever permitted to do anything 
carelessly. If she be a well-educated Princess, 
she has been taught that whatever is " worth doing 
at all is worth doing well." Her notes are free 
from erasures or Mots, they are carefully consid- 
ered. Her drawings must be contrasted with 
those of artists; they must not be amateur. " Re- 
member," said the wise Prince Albert to his daugh- 
ters and sons, when the}' sent some of their draw- 
ings to a fair, "remember, if you put 'Albert 
Edward,' 'Victoria,' 'Alice.' at the foot of your 
picture and there is an arm or a nose badly drawn, 
some one who looks at it may be encouraged to 
draw carelessly too." 

At the Fete of St. Denis, at the royal Chateau 
of Chantilly, an American gentleman present was 
struck as he was making his way through the 
Forest with the remarkable riding of a young girl 
in front of him. Seeing him watch her, as she turned 

aside for the royal stag to pass her (for the Due 



124 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

keeps up the legend and sends out a stag to be 
hunted fur that day), she drew up her horse and 
allowed him to join her. Her groom, an elderly ser- 
vant in the royal livery, followed close behind her. 
She entered into conversation with him, and, with 
what he thought remarkable clearness, gave him 
details of the history of the Chateau — the pretty 
old quaint story of tin- I [ Si. Hubert, and 

answered his questions in English so excellent, and 
with so modest common sense that as she bowed 
and trotted oft. In- asked the groom who she was. 

" The I': \iiK : lir d'( >rleans." 

"Alas! I wish my daughter knew the history of 
her own country so well — or could ride as cour- 
ageously," said the American. 

His daughter might have done as well if lie 
had worked as hard over the matter of teaching 
her as the Count de Paris has been willing to do. 

It is not only a matter of dollars and cents, this 
education of girls; it is far more a matter of 
thought and consideration. The American family 
is not taught the value of time, the beauty of svs- 
tem,asth ireign ] aretaught. NoAmer- 



THE "LILIES OK FRANCE." 125 

ican father grudges money ; on the contrary he 
spends generally twice as much as foreigners do 
in giving his children the best masters and the 
most expensive schools. But he does not begin at 
six o'clock in the morning to make every hour tell, 
he does not insist on the judicious alternation of 
work and play, he does not give thought to it. 

In considering the "Lilies of France," we must 
remember that their fathers did not hesitate to 
come over during our war, serving on the staff 
of General McClellan, and that they regarded 
obedience to orders as the first duty of a soldier, 
also that in unqualified courtesy to all they had no 
superior, and few equals. 

The Princess Amelie, daughter of the Count 
de Paris, is a very tall young maiden, somewhat 
like her grandmother, the Duchesse d'Orleans, who 
was a very superior person and who was widowed 
young by the dreadful accident which deprived 
France of its best hope, her husband Ferdinand 
d'Orleans being killed by a fall from his carriage 
in his thirty-third year. His sons, the Count de 
Paris and the Due de Chart res, have always been 



126 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

singularly attached to each other. Their daugh- 
ters have been brought up like sisters. 

It is now the turn of the Princess Amelie to be 
betrothed, and the Due de Braganza, son of the 
King of Portugal, is the happy lover. He too had 
a distinguished grandmother, called Maria del 
Gloria, who was a Bourbon. So the pretty and 
pleasing horsewoman who told so well the story of 
St. Hubert, is about to renew all the glories of her 
exiled Race. Well is she fitted to shine, either on a 
throne, or in the exalted sphere of private life. 
Like her father and uncle, she has learned to obey. 

r 



VII. 



THE ROYAL GIRLS OF DENMARK. 

LUCK," which is supposed to befriend the 
" Cobbler," likewise can help along a 
" King." No one is more beholden to the fickle 
goddess than a " little Princeling " of forty years 
ago who, as a captain of cavalry, had the temerity 
to marry on fifteen hundred a year. His very plain 
little chateau just out of his native city of Copen- 
hagen soon found itself full of a noisy group of 
boys and girls who had no idea how many crowns 
were to be given to them to play with. 

Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Sonderburg, 
Gliicksburg, had but a remote and slight relation- 
ship to the Royal family of Denmark, the house of 
Oldenburg ; but his wife, who is his distant cousin, 
was more nearly connected than himself. The 

crazy and childish King Frederic vn. liked him, 
127 



128 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

however, and hailed him gladly as his heir-appar- 
ent when the treaty of London, ignoring the claims 
of the Augustenburg branch, voted the right of suc- 
cession to this impecunious Prince Christian. 

Still he had been a handsome enough young 
Protestant Prince to be sent to London in his 
youth as a possible husband for the young Queen 
Victoria. There were even rumors at one time that 
she preferred him to Prince Albert ! But alas ! 
one night he took too much wine at dinner, it is 
said, and she gave him his refusal, and sent him 
back to Copenhagen ; an anecdote which might 
point a moral to young lovers who are not Royal ! 
However he went home and married a very estima- 
ble and handsome Princess who is said to be his su- 
perior. Perhaps this, after all, was his first success. 

On the death of Prince Ferdinand, the uncle and 
also the heir of the crazy king, the law of succes- 
sion was passed over, ignoring the Augustenburg 
branch, as we have seen, and making the Duke of 
Gliicksburg, or Prince Christian as he was now 
termed, heir-apparent, with a salary of about forty- 
five hundred dollars. 



THE ROYAL GIRLS OF DENMARK. . 1 29 

At the Bernsdorf Castle where the Duke took 
up his semi-royal residence his daughters, the Prin- 
cesses, then nearly grown-up, lived in much better 
style than they had done before this accession of 
fortune. In his days of poverty the girls had made 
their own dresses, turning them if necessary, and 
also showing skill in the making of bonnets — of 
which pastime the Princess of Wales is still se- 
cretly fond, it is said. Alexandra and Dagmar 
were on visiting terms with the families of the 
army and navy officers and the bureaucracy of 
Denmark. Their simplicity and frank good nature 
then, as now, endeared them to everyone. Alex- 
andra became a famous pianist. She plays like an 
artist, or did. Perhaps her deafness may now in- 
terfere a little with this splendid gift. 

When it was considered proper to marry off the 
Prince of Wales, a rapid resume of the possible 
Protestant Princesses whom he could marry nar- 
rowed the chance down to three, of whom Alexan- 
dra of Denmark pleased him best. On March 7, 
1863, the Princess landed at Gravesend with her 
parents, then Prince and Princess Christian of 



130 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Denmark (for the King was still alive, and paid for 
the trousseau of the youthful Alexandra, her father 
being too poor). She was met there by the Prince 
of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge. A mag- 
nificent pageant preceded and accompanied her 
through the city of London, by the Mansion 
House, Cheapside, St. Paul's, Ludgate Hill, Meet 
Street and the Strand. In Hyde Park seventeen 
thousand London volunteers stood under arms to 
guard her progress. She was received at Windsor 
Castle by the recentlv-widowed Queen, and on 
the subsequent Tuesday, March 10, she was mar- 
ried to her illustrious bridegroom in St. Ge< 
Chapel, Windsor. She was surrounded by her 
family ; her father and mother, her sister Thyra, 
and her little brother Waldemar. 1 [er eight brides- 
maids were chosen from the noblest maidens of 
Great Britain. The religious service was performed 
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the lii^hop of 
London, and the Dean of Windsor. The Crown 
Prince of Prussia, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and 
Gotha, and other Royalties assisted at the cere- 
monial. The scene in St. George's Chapel was 



THE ROYAL GIRLS OF DENMARK. 131 

noble and grand, especially as the Knights of the 
Garter in their splendid robes were there in full 
force. The Royal Girl from Denmark was " then 
and there enthroned as Queen of Hearts." Ten- 
nyson greeted her as " The Sea King's Daughter, 
from over the sea." Her ancestors were called 
Vikings and all the Northern Mythology was in- 
voked to find parallels for her blushing charm, for 
her grace and dignity, and for an attraction which 
she has never lost — thorough unconsciousness of self 
From that moment too, the House of Oldenburg 
became a central pivot of European politics, and 
Christian of Denmark was universally sought for 
as a " Father-in-law." 

An English paper says of this quietly-reared 
Royal Girl of Denmark : 

The English people know little more of her than the un- 
conscious goodness and sweetness of her disposition, her un- 
ostentatious virtues as a Wife, a Daughter, a Sister, a 
Mother, and the womanly charm of her presence felt as a 
blessing wherever she goes, worshipped as true womanhood 
should be with the silent homage of the heart. Of her per- 
sonal sentiments, of any special accomplishments of learning 



132 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

or taste, no public testimony has been given or required. 
The Prina s true lady and we all believe her 

to be good ; that is enough for us all. The mily of 

Denmark is German ; the English hail th< D 3 their 

national kindred. The Scandinavian race is worthy of the 
in. She time to dis- 

perse the 1 I ow that had hung over the Court and 

Kingdom during tirement of the widowed ' 

into private life since the deatl it. 

in that time to this she lias indeed b< I 

the most universally 1 ind admired Prin- 

3 in the \\<»rl(l. and has by her admirable pru- 
dence ensured for the Prince of Wales a pi 
the estim ill England, which with a differ- 

ent wife he might have lost. After twenty-two 

• of married life she is still the 
don society, she has preserved a remarkably 
youthful appearance, is in the highes lady- 

like and gi 1 ill of her. In 

manner she is Still simple as she 

was when she arrived in England, although she 
holds perhaps the most enviable place in all the 
world, as the powerful and gracious wife of the future 
sovereign, as a beautiful woman, as the person to 



THE ROYAL GIRLS OF DENMARK. 



!33 



whom all hats are taken off, as the most admired, 
courted, and noble lady in the land. For she is, 
after the Queen, the most potent person in England. 
She and her sister, the Empress of Russia, often 
inert at Copenhagen, and both shake hands with 
the old coachman who drove their carriage when 
they were girls. This always excites entln; 
in Copenhagen. In their benefactions they do 
not forget the plain private school in which they 
first learned their " A, B, abs," and the multiplica- 
tion table. They are very dear and kind sisters to 
each other, and truly benevolent. The Empress of 
i used to be spoken of as the most generous, 
until it was ascertained that the Princess of Wales 
had not so profuse a private pur.se as her imperial 
sister. The Empress is of course the possessor of 
the purse of Fortunatus. She has but to dip her 
hand in, and the gold comes. When she heard 
that this criticism was being made she delicately 
said, "that hereafter the Princess of Wales would 
decide on all questions o!" benevulence and that 
she (the Empress) would give only what her sister 
thought best." 



134 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

It is said that Queen Victoria found her Royal 
Girl of Denmark at first wanting in those heredi- 
tary ideas of grandeur which should mark " royal 
blood." She reminded her more than once that 
she must not help herself ; must not put an apron 
" to save her gown " — that she thought " Albert 
Edward would be able to buy her a new one when 
that one was worn cut." So the Queen told her 
to re id Andersen's Fairy Story of the "real Prin- 
who felt tlie Pea through seven feather 
beds." Vi( toria, bom and bred a haughty Queen, 
was confident that she should have detected the 
Tea. She told the story of a certain Empress 
who, not having been born a Queen, effused 
and froze at the wrong moments — too dignified 
one minute, too free another. She thought her 
daughter-in-law confessed to a plebeian education 
when she essayed to open the piano for herself, as 
she was about to play at a private drawing-room at 
Buckingham Palace. No Princess since the days 
of Berengaria had ever opened her own piano, and 
evidently she had no piano to open ! 

The Princess is said to have on this occasion vin- 




'" ll ' s * v.MAKK. 



THE ROYAL GIRLS OF DENMARK. 137 

dicated her title to being the daughter of a Viking; 
and, sitting down to the instrument, she played so 
brilliantly that the Queen herself applauded. 

" Ask mamma if \play too well for a Princess," 
she whispered to the Prince. 

But the Queen could not but see that this daugh- 
ter-in-law, so plainly and so unpretendingly brought 
up, was a real Qiiccti at heart. 

For ten years she went on, gaining everyday in 
public favor, the best wife to a very gay young 
Prince, the happy mother of many children — and 
then the fabric of her love and greatness seemed to 
totter to its base. The Prince, her husband-lover, 
as dear to her as at first, fell ill <>f a fever at Sand- 
ringham, and lay trembling between lite and death 
for weeks. There was sympathy for the Queen, 
sympathy for the Princess, sympathy for England, 
expressed all over the world. There was such dan- 
ger for England — should he die — in a long re- 
gency; both England and France had felt that 
before. The hideous spectre of Communism rose 
on the horizon. There had been angry meetings 
in Hyde Park. The recent explosions in Paris of 



138 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

the mobcx ghtened well-behaving as well as 

ill-behaving Englishmen. 
The young wife watched by her husband's bed- 
tenderness and love. 
Every one rejoiced when the tide turned in his 

. and prayers went up from Bombay I 
Francisco, that Albert Ed) 'it be spared. 

And the Danish Princess — what did she do? 
When the lever left him and the physician 
" Hope : " she took one of her littl by the 

and walked through the fields to the parish 
church near Sandringham, and i nded only 

by one lady, .she knelt and with grateful I 
thanks that her husband was spared 
young wife would have dune. don of 

lackeys, no outriders, no carriagi 
in state to thank the K Kings that he had 

spared England's King. No! Thi an of 

the parish did not know that si in church 

until he looked up from the reading desk, and saw 
her, u devoutly kneeli: 

At the family gatherings at the castle in Copen- 
hagen, the mother of the Princess of Wales delights 



THE ROYAL GIRLS OF DENMARK. 139 

in sitting at the head of her table, and making tea 

for her grandchildren. They are a motley group ! 

t, and England, all speaking English. 

The religion of this remarkable family is still 

than their nationality — Lutheran, 

Church, Russian Orthodox. Greek 

Catholic and Roman ( latholic. 

The Prince of V n, is not 

popular in Copenhagen, b 

They say that " a finer physique never bathed in 

the North Sea than hi He on his side - 

Nihilist-haunted man — says that "it is the only 

where h fe." 

I I jnaris the loveliest of the King's daughters. 

She is short, with - not as 

itiful as • ' she is 

charming in some ways. She has a face full 

of feeling in which the 1 lesand goes. She 

[ways a more robust person than Alexandra, 

and more fond of out-of-d pations. The 

old retainers about Bernsdorf Castle remember 

with pleasure that on more than one occasion 

she drove the oxen in the field, and took hold of the 



140 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

plough, learning to run a straight furrow. She has 
great influence over the Czar; to her is attributed 
the breaking up of the proposed war with England. 

Thyra, the third sister, is not at all pretty, al 
though she has a 1 ertain chic. She is married to 
Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. This, considering 
the marriages of her brothers and sisters, was held 
to he a misalliance. Thyra has not been as fortu- 
nate as \v • in any respect. But it is 1 
ble, in view of the "mysterious future which 
Bismarck's death may herald for Germany," that 
. Duke of Cumberland, a man of immense 
wealth, may b< The 
1 , Princes ( . rmany, the Princess Royal 
ria Adelaide Mai I 1 of England, the 
future Empress of Germany, means to bring in a 
new r/gimt, no doubt, when she takes the helm. 

The Queen of Denmark, the mother of six won- 
derfully successful children, if we take 
meaning Royal Crowns, is " mistress of her house " 
in every sense of the word. Rigidly orthodox and 
religious, she has communicated the same spirit to 
her daughters. The Kin- is dull and good, a nature 



THE ROYAL GIRLS OF DENMARK. 141 

limited in all respects. Yet Christian has behaved 
himself well in emergencies. He is said to have 
found out the " seamy side " of Kingship in 1S64, 
when Prussia and Austria forced on him a brutal 
war of aggression; but the marriage of his daugh- 
> agmar in 1S66 reinstated his good fortune. 
His eldest son, the Crown Prince of Denmark, 
married a daughter of the King of Sweden. This 
lady brings great wealth into the family. Her 
daughter is said to be 

A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, 
And mual divinely fair. 

She is too tall, perhaps, for beaut}-. She and the 
daughter of the Count de Paris, are the two tallest 
Princesses in Europe. 

' leen of Greece, wife to the second son 
of this Royal I! i 1 mark, is a daughl 

Duke Vladimir of Russia. She has a certain 
stately blonde loveliness of her own The third 

son, Prince Waldemar, has recently married Prin- 
cess Marie, one of the "lilies of France." 

\ ;i may amuse our young readers to trace the 



142 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

fortunes which are all slowly travelling toward the 
descendants of King Christian of Denmark we 
quote from an English newspaper some details of 
the " prospects " of the Princess Marie: 

She is eldest daughter of the Due de Chartres, who is the 
youngest son of the Due d'Orleans who was killed before he 
came to the throne of France. The grandfather, Louis Phil- 
ippe, left one hundred and thirty million of francs, in ready 
money, to his children. The Duchesse de Chartres, 
the mother of the Princess Marie, is the daughter of the 
Prince de Joinville and will inherit all his wealth. She has 
expectations also from her uncle, Due d'Aumale, one of the 
richest men in Europe. The Due de Chartres had also a 
handsome fortune; so that Prince Waldemar of Denmark 
and his family will come in for a very large share of that 
immense fortune of the Orleans Princes. 

" It is a river into which many swollen affluents 
arc falling." Fortunate for the world — those few 
years of poverty and self-sacrifice which gave the 
Queen of Denmark time and self-restraint to rear 
all these children, to whom such splendid destinies 
are given, such immense power for the welfare or 
the ruin of thousands of their fellow beings ! 



THE ROYAL GIRLS OF DENMARK. 143 

The Prince Waldemar is said to be about twenty- 
seven, tall, light-haired and handsome, the young- 
est child of his fortunate parents — their " darling 
pig," as the papers say. He will inherit all their 
savings, as England will take care of Alexandra 
and her children. Russia has enough for Dagmar, 
and hers. Their eldest son has, as we have seen, 
" enough coming in " from Sweden. The King of 
Greece may " need a little sum," for Greece is not 
a rich inheritance. 

In the marriage of Prince Waldemar with the 
young Orleanist Princess, it is Denmark that con- 
fers honor, instead of receiving it. The exiled 
House of France, immensely rich, is glad to gain 
through this so fortunate marriage an alliance with 
all the most important reigning Houses of Europe. 
The teetotum of fortune has spun round in forty 
years and the " little Princeling " now makes his 
own terms with the once proud dynasty of France. 
The best of all this part of the story is that the 
young pair, Waldemar and Marie, are real lovers. 
Victoria of England has thirty-five grandchildren, 
and three or four great-grandchildren. Of these, 



144 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

the children of the I Mince of Wales, and those of 
the Princess Helena, commonly known as Princess 
Christian, are Schleswig-Holsteiners. This House 
is remarkable for its many kingly connections. The 
Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein who mar- 
ried the Princess Helena in 1S65, is of the Son- 
derburg Augustenburg branch, whose right to the 
throne of Denmark was superseded bythe present 
. our " little Princeling," another Christian <>f 
Schleswig-1 1 ilstein. 

At the moment at which we write, in 1SS5, the 
family of Denmark are enjoying a reunion 
most remarkable in its character. The Prince and 
Princess of Wales with all their children, the Czar 
and Czarina of Ivu->ia with theirs, the Princess 
Thyra and her husband, the King of Greece and 
his family, and the Crown Prince of Denmark witli 
candinavi an brood and Swedish wife, are mak- 
ing gay the little city of ( lopenhagen. ( me can but 
wish that Thorwaldsen, the great grenius of the 
North, could return to earth to embody in his im- 
perishable marble this fair and healthy group of 
Royal 



VIII. 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. 



r I "MIK first thing' an American does on arriving 
J- in St. Petersburg is to try to comprehend 
Peter's colossal whim — the building of this enor- 
mous city in a marsh. He calls an isvostschic and 
Starts for a drive down wide interminable streets, 
and loses his power of measuring distances in 
squares a mile wide. So generous was he of these 
reclaimed acres, the crazy Tzar, that even Ids 
gigantic palaces and public buildings seem small in 
the immensity ; even St. [zak's, the great cathe- 
dral, is dwarfed by the plain about it. It is an 
enormous sweep, St. Petersburg, and needs all its 
color to prevent a feeling of loneliness. The roofs 
air red, the i hurch-domes green and gold, the sky 
is brilliantly blue, the verdure is very green in the 
short Russian summer, and then- are unexpected 
145 



146 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

fascinations and allurements of color which help 
to curtain these otherwise unfinished corridors of 
space — it is the story of the Russian Empire 
again ; splendor, variety, unlimited expanse, a Mare 
of trumpet and drum, covering up and hiding want 
and wretchedness, cold, oppression, woe; the bar- 
baric pearl and gold baldachin thrown over the 
naked skeleton of Nihilism, the iron will of a ty- 
rant commanding Aladdin's Palace in a swamp. 

The isvostschic or hack-driver drives h 
horse, in a drosky, like lightning through these 
wide streets. It is the beginning of a pictures, pie 
dream. I le turns into the "Nevska Prospekt" than 
which there is not a more brilliant street in Europe. 
I lis American hears brilliant hands of musi< . 
a military display in which bands of I 3 dash 

wildly to and fro, beholds pass as in a vision all 
the costumes of the far East ; Asia is at his elbow, 
while Paris, the beloved of the upper classes, has 
lent its last elegance to the women and the men of 
the Russian aristocracy. Adown the Titanic per- 
spective he sees all the nations of the earth. On 
either side of him palaces rise like an exhalation. 




WARN ii iDOl IVNA, rHE CZARINA, 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. 1 47 

His guide tells him that in yonder ball-room he 
must take his telescope to see a group of statuary 
at the end, that twenty thousand wax candles are 
called on to illuminate it for a court ball. He looks 
with wonder at the Admiralty, the government of- 
fices, the houses of the nobility each in a spacious 
courtyard. He sees windows of plate glass, each 
pane fifteen feet long by eight wide, which shelter 
magnificent groups of tropical flowers. He looks 
at the Imperial Palace, at the shops, at the equi- 
pages, at the priestly parades, at the groups of sen- 
ators, judges, generals, governors, bishops, field- 
marshals, courtiers, all in uniform. His eye picks 
out the miserable peasant, the mondjik. He tries 
t<> understand this strange melange, this mingled 
sunshine and dust, and to comprehend its glare and 
its gloom. Such is the first view in St. Petersburg. 
Around the four islands which make Petersburg 
winds the Neva like a silver thread. Then it goes 
off to embrace the Garden islands on which the 
Grand Dukes have their summer houses — a scene 
of delightful verdure and perfect (lowers. The 
palaces and villas, the birch glades, the blossoming 



I48 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

of the enamelled turf — all is a scene of enchantment. 
For hot-house plants find their perfect bloom in 
Russia. On one of these Garden Islands is the 
summer residence of the Imperial Family, the 
Tzarokoe Solo, a country-seat so beautifully kept 
that the saving is that they dust the leaves every 
evening and lay all the stones straight in the mad. 
After this bird's-eye view, the traveller goes to 
walk on the English quay, the fashionable prome- 
nade, where the Emperor and Empress and the nu- 
bility are to be met. This quay is the work of the 
Empress Catherine 11. who enclosed all her canals 
and rivers about the capitol with colossal blo< 
granite. They make much of their rose-colored 
granite in St. Petersburg. They have mi moliths of 
it sixty feet high. Alexander 1. raised one when he 
came home from subduing Napoleon. After granite 
comes malachite. Columns of this beautiful green 
precipitate of copper from the imperial manufac- 
tory at Peterhoff, fifty feet high, and worth at the 
least seventy thousand dollars apiece, adorn the 
front of St. Izak's. There are statues and vases 
of it evervwhere. The Russians love malachite. 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. 1 49 

This great cathedral, St. Izak's, is, within, all 
colors — red and gold and ivory — saints, altars 
and shrines, stained glass and malachite, lapis 
lazuli and gems. It is in the form of a Greek 
cross, three hundred feet in diameter. Into this 
great church one day came a little Danish maid 
named I )agmar to be married. When she came to 
Petersburg it was thought a great thing for Den- 
mark. Now the whole world thinks it was a great 
thing for Russia, for the Northern princess with 
golden hair and red rose cheeks, has proved her- 
self more than a brilliant match for the Tzar of all 
the Russias, a wise and good woman in a place of 
dangerous power. Her position is the most splen- 
did in the world — this girl who used to make her 
own dresses and trim her own bonnets. 

When she and Alexander came to the throne, 
after the assassination of Alexander n., she at once 
emphatically seconded her imperial husband in all 
his reforms. She had a tender thought for the 
women of Russia. She founded the Female Gym- 
nasia and Pr igymnasia, and herself wrote a series 
of articles for the papers : " How to Educate our 



150 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Girls." Thanks to her, nowhere in Europe has 
there been such a vast development given to the 

scientific education of young girls as in Russia ; 
nowhere have they been given Mich easy a 
to liberal careers, and to government employ- 
ments. In [873, no less than seventy-seven Rus- 
sian ladies were studying medicine at Zurich. She 
is very much interested in the Institute of Stnolnoi % 
where the daughters of noble and impoverished 
Russians are educated i 1 -hers 

of all kinds, it should he said, hold a much I, 
and more important position in Russia than else- 
where. They form a distinct (lass in the stair, and 
the men hold a brevet rank amongst stal 
and have a good chance of rising in public life, for 
the Russians hold culture in -real respect. Female 
teachers are very important people, and often 
marry brilliantly. They always make fortunes, for 
the salaries are enorm 

Dagmar herself is a scholar. She mastered the 

ian language at the outset. There are sixty 

million of her subjects who speak nothing else, and 

mpressloves her adopted country. She once 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. 151 

remarked to an American Minister that " the Rus- 
sian language is full of power and beauty, it equals 
the Italian in music, the English in vigorous power 
and copiousness ; " for compactness of expression 
she claims that it rivals the Latin, and for the mak- 
ing >if new words is equal to the Creek. It cer- 
tainly has in itself an alphabet and spelling 
tirely phonetic. 

I have said that the first thing an American 
in Russia is to look at St. Petersburg. The next 
thing is to call on his Minister and to present a 
letter to a Grand Duke. For a Russian Grand 
Duke is apt to be kind to our countrymen, and the 
great doors of the Winter Palace swing open at the 
word " American." 

If the American he well presented by his Min- 
ister, if he hears the searching investigation of 
that sleepless police, if he prove that he is not a 
Nihilist — then all -Mrs well with him. He re- 
ceives through his Minister a card as valuable 
and almost as heavy as the keys of a fortress, that 
will allow him to make his respectful bow to the 
Empress. 



152 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Both as Tzare'vna and Empress the Royal Girl 
Dagmar has won golden opinions from the Ameri- 
cans at Court. At her coronation in Moscow, cue 
of the most splendid of all modern ceremonies, by 
some mistake the American Naval Ambassador 
and his wife did nol their invitations. This 

fact soon reached the ears of the Tzar and the T/ar- 
ina. Great was the embarrassment of chamberlains 
and vice-chamberlains. It was a discourtesy of the 
highest, a slight to a nation they like, a diplomatic 
mistake which in diplomatic Russia cannot be tol- 
1. It i> said to be du jnar's woman 

wit that it was most kindly rectified. The Admiral 
and his wife were asked to the Hall in the evening 
by a personal invitation. One of the grandest offi- 
cers of the court called and apologized. At the 
Ball a Grand Duke took the American lady into 
the Royal quadrille, and. a few weeks after, a gold 
snuff-box, set with diamonds, containing the por- 
trait of the Emperor, was sent to the American 
Naval Ambassador. Better than all the newly- 
crowned Empress Dagmar, the Tzarina of all the 
Russias, sent for the lady, and conversed with her 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. 1 53 

several minutes in the most agreeable manner at 
the Ball. 

The world is wide, these things are small, 
They may be little — but they are all. 

That is, they show that the simple education of 
Dagmar fitted her for not only the splendid du- 
ties of her exalted position, but that both have 
left her heart unspotted from the world. She 
could have managed the etiquette without the 
kindness. She happily combined the two. 

The lovely Danish Princess had indeed been 
well-schooled in self-control and submission. A 
tender, sad romance lies back of her splendor and 
happiness. 

Her husband's elder brother, the Tzarovitch, 
who died at Nice in the twenty-first year of his age, 
had been betrothed to her. When she was told in 
her schoolroom that she was to marry him, and In- 
come Empress of all the Russias, she wept bit- 
terly, and fell on her father's neck and begged of 
him to save her from the terrible country of Cath- 
erine 11., cold and cruel Russia! However, the 
young people were allowed to see more of each 



154 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

other than is generally allowed in Royal engage- 
ments, and they grew to be passionately attached. 
When the poor young Prince died Dagmar was 
heart-broken. When a year afterwards it was 
proposed that she should marry his brother 
Alexander, she again refused her consent to be- 
come the future Russian Empress. But, strange 
as it may seem, she grew to like the young Alex- 
ander, and finally to love him, and there is no 
happier marriage on any throne of Europe than 
that of Dagmar and Alexander. The Em 
adores her. She has courage. She was the hope- 
ful wife during all the period of trouble which owing 
to the Nihilists followed her marriage. Never did 
her husband leave her that she did not dread his 

assassination. She was a great c< »mf< at to the ; 
ina, who broken in health and heart by the death of 
her son, wept herself to death. 

But the Court to which Dagmar was called is 
one of the most aristocratic in the world, proud, 
and heavily freighted with etiquette. It is said 
that a foreigner must approach the Empr< 
Russia through three thousand officials ! The 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. 155 

Winter Palace, with its polished floors, its walls 
blazing with a thousand wax candles, its gorgeous 
hangings, malachite pillars, and works of art, its 
tropical flowers, palms, and ferns, its iloors inlaid 
with ebon}' and rosewood and ivory is a wonderful 
and mysterious place. There surrounded by a sea 
of splendor, stands the young Empress, herself a 
moving mass of diamonds. Her necklace reaches 
from her throat to her waist, on 1, 
crown made for Elizabeth, all the gems of the East 
air on her breast, with the proudest of imperial 
orders. Surrounded by Grand Duchesses and by 
Grand Dukes, each of whom blazes with jewels, 
standstills young woman called to a destiny which 
is so peerless and so perilous. She bows gra- 
ciously to the guest presented, and stands fur hours 
to do her part in this great pageant, Royal in her 
royal robes. 

Then the guest goes On, and on, to the S Upper 

rooms. In the largest, the imperial supper-table is 

spread, and two others, for the Ambassadors and 
the ladies and gentlemen in waiting. There are 
two bands which play alternately during supper, 



156 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

which is served from a m ; >ld and silver 

service. The wine stands in coolers of silver, beau- 
tifully wrought. The glass is that of Venice and 
Bohemia, the china, the rarest old Saxe, Dresden 

:vres. Every piece may have been th< 
of a monarch. Nowhere in the world i> a more 
imperial entertainment: a hot supper is serve 
three hours to three thousand guesl 

ipper the can wander through a 

corridor ornamented with palm trees and orchids, 

where tea nts in red. yellow, and 

white livery, stand behind the tab: 1 ds-of- 

honor, and Russian dames, of 
of the Diplomatic corps, and op] them Rus- 

sian n all in court or military uniform 

guard a door by which Royalty enters and makes 
it> exit through this 1 

( Mice there was a 1 »y, named ('.■ 

Sumner, who wrote a letter to the Tzar Nicholas, 
the grandfather <>f the pres - In-, telling him 
that he had brought him a present — some acrns 
from the tomb of V 'ton. The Emperor re- 

ceived him kindly and asked him to this >ame 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. 



*57 



Winter Palace. There the Boston Boy saw Olga, 
most peerless of snow-white beauties, the Emper- 
or's favorite daughter. She was tall, with match- 
Mid a smile of sweetness. When the 
young Bostonian saw her dance the mazourka and 
the wild polonaise, he did not doubt the story that 
the musician Strauss had fallen in love with her 
from the music gallery — " it was the desire of the 
m<.th for the star "—and had gone out and shot 
himself, after writing a wait/ in which music and 
melancholy, the minor key and the gayest melody, 
illy min-led, which last work of his 
he dedicated, " to the (Hand Due': i " 

These Royal Girls of Russia were very carefully 
educated. They had English governesses and 
German | i j. They were especially taught 

all the forms of the Creek Religion. The 

mained good Russians wherever they went. One 
became ihn-cw<,\ Wirtemberg, one Grand Duchess 
of Wiesbaden. They never forgot the Creek 

Church. Olga, the beautiful, who in her youth 
was the toast ,,f Europe for her beauty, was espe- 
cially devout, she used to observe all the festivals 



158 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

and cultivate the Russian customs. She learned 
id songs, "the tears of Russia " as the}- are 
called, by which the peasants breathe forth their 
sorrow. Perhaps hearing her sing them may have 
inspired her brother, the murdered Tzar, Al 
der 11., with his great scheme <>t" freeing so many 
millio rfs. 

The niei 1 >lga, the Duchess of Edinburgh, 

mble this aunt in her attachment to 
old forms. Neither she, nor her brother the Tzar, 
have the beaut}' of the Romanoffs, nor the caress- 
ing manners of some of the race. She was very 
carefully educated under the eye of her mother, 
the sad Tzarina. She had for her companion a 
young girl slightly older than herself, a member of 
tin- Institute of Smolnoi. With this friend she 
kept pace in all the studies required of the 
vanced pupils at the Institute, and received no 
excus/i because of her Royal Blood. Inheriting 
the constitutional gravity of her father (in his case, 
it was almost melancholy) she has not been a fav- 
orite at gay courts; no doubt his sad end affected 
her very much. But she is said, even in England, 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. kq 

to be an excellent wife and mother. Indeed the 
household of the Duke of Edinburgh is described 
by an English lady who knows it well to be a 
model one. 

Another pen shall give you one more Winter 
Palace glimpse of the pomp of Russian royal life 
— the christening of a Russian Royal baby, the 
son of Dagmar, when Dagmar was only the Tzar- 
ina, and Alexander the Tzarovitch — the little 
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch. It was one 
of the last bright scenes before the assassination 
of Alexander n. 

" Punctually at ten o'clock in the morning the 
procession started from the palace of the 'I 
vitch. First, one hundred of the Emperor's body- 
guard—two platoons of them stretching from one 
Mil,' of the street to the other. Behind them rode 
a solitary officer and next four grooms in imperial 
livery. A gilt coach followed drawn by six bay 
5 with gilt harness and containing the Master 
of Ceremonies of the Tzarovitch court. A larger 
gilt coach came after the first, in which were the 
Cushion-bearer and the Blanket-bearer, one of 



l6o ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

them being Count Kotzebue, the Governor of Po- 
land, and the other Prince Suwaroff. Then ap- 
peared a third gilt coach. In this was the Mis- 
tress of Ceremonies of the T/arevna's Court, and 
the baby, k L* August Grand Due, Nouveau-N£* — 
the newborn baby. 

" The equipage which carried him had outriders, 
each of the carriages had postilions, coachmen, 
two were in the rumble, and three servants walk- 
ing in the road on either side dressed in imperial 
livery. Some of these men held up the skirts of 
their fur-lined coats as they inarched through the 
snow, thus presenting rather an absurd appearance. 
A company of C :s brought up the rear. 

" The whole procession reached the imperial 
palace in time, and ladies were admitted, at the 
door of the Council of the Empire, gentlemen in 
uniform, ladies in full dress, low necks, and trains. 
After dropping their fur cloaks, for the thermome- 
ter was ten degrees above zero, they ascended a 
broad staircase of white marble with carved oak 
balustrades, were confronted with two rosewood 
doors, heavily gilt, which opened into a long hall. 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. l6l 

Through this corridor with windows looking over 
the Neva on the one side, and into a conservatory 
on the left, with fountains, palm-trees, and tropical 
plants, they passed into a high and beautiful room 
held up by pillars of marble. 

"Then through a labyrinth of splendors and an 
endless corridor, lined with portraits of the Em- 
perors of Russia, and standards holding up innu- 
merable Sevres vases, they reached an enormous 
throne-room, with a raised dais for a throne, vistas 
of long passages with arched ceilings and painted 
walls : a smaller throne-room with immense mala- 
chite vases, lapis lazuli tables, ebony doors inlaid 
with gold, silver and ivory, pillars of marble and 
granite from Finland and Siberia; a huge room 
with rows of silver candelabra reaching nearly from 
floor to ceiling, marqueterie floors, polished mir- 
rors, and pictures. Hut we are 'keeping the 
baby out in the cold.' finally the chapel is 
reached, where were members of the Diplomatic 
court assembled, gentlemen in uniform, ladies in 
court dress. The gentlemen on one side of the 
room, the ladies on the other. 



1 62 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

" At the back of the chapel, was a gilt iconotase 
ornamented with rich jewels. In front of this 
screen was the font. The choir, dressed in red 
robes trimmed with yellow, was already in its 
place. Presently the Metropolitan of St. Peters- 
burg, in a white brocade robe trimmed with gold 
and a tall pointed hat, came from behind the 
iconotase bearing an icon, and followed by a 
priest with holy water. , About ten more priests 
succeeded them in gorgeous dress. The priests 
met the Emperor who kissed the icon and was 
sprinkled with holy water. Each member of his 
family entered and followed his example. The 
procession then walked to the font, and the Im- 
perial Family took up their positions inside the gilt 
rail. After the rest of the party had passed, the 
baby, completely covered with cloth-of-gold, was 
borne in on a cushion by the Princess Kourakine. 
The trains of the Grand Duchesses were carried by 
pages. The service lasted over two hours, and all 
were obliged to stand. The Russian ladies were 
dressed in the national costume, which consists of 
a white silk or satin skirt, a low waist, long train, 



RUSSIAN ROYAL GIRLS. 1 63 

and wide open sleeves of colored velvet, a train 
of the same color, and a veil attached to the tiara. 
The Grand Duchess Constantine wears the finest 
jewels. On this occasion she wore a train of pearl 
gray satin trimmed with bands of wide Russian 
sable, the fur studded with diamonds and fastened 
on one shoulder with an immense emerald. 

" There was a great deal of chanting by the Met- 
ropolitan priests, and then the water in the font 
was blessed. The child was separated in some mys- 
terious way from all his clothes and plunged into 
the font three times, head-first. His nose and eyes 
were covered by the Metropolitan Hand, but the 
' August Nouveau-Nt* cried like any ordinary baby, 
and evidently did not like it at all. The Emperor 
stood as godfather. Holding a lighted candle he 
carried the baby three times around the font, ac- 
companied by the Metropolitan and the godmother, 
also with candles, and the choir chanted solemnly. 
The Emperor passed a blue ribbon about the 
child's neck investing him with the order of St. 
Anthony, after which he was taken away, and ap- 
peared no more during the services." 



IX. 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. 

WITH the living Royal Girls of England, 
the various biographies of their father 
and sister, the Queen's fondness for authorship and 
the diligent scribbling of many loyal pens, have 
made us comparatively well-acquainted. 

We have had many glimpses of the Royal 
Nursery. We know that the Queen's children 
were carefully and severely educated, fed on the 
simplest food, made to take a great deal of sys- 
tematic exercise, taught above all to respect " God, 
the Queen and the truth," very thoroughly trained 
in art, being all of them painters, sculptors and 
musicians, after the pattern of their accomplished 
father ; and that only at seventeen or eighteen 
were they allowed to appear at a Drawing-Room, 
thus making their entree into society, and being 
164 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. 1 65 

introduced all at once to the glare and glitter, the 
fine clothes and the diamonds, the state banquets 
and the festivities, which before had been merely 
fairy tales to them. 

Queen Victoria, except in the case of her young- 
est daughter, was not averse to early marriages for 
her young princes and princesses. She had ex- 
perienced the happiness of an early love-match 
herself, and no doubt sought to save her daughters 
from the vicissitudes of the life of Royal Girls — 
one of which is the sometime peril of being 
married off for state reasons. Her eldest daughter, 
the Crown Princess, made the most ambitious of 
all the marriages and, fortunately, one of affection 
also. She will be Empress of Germany. 

" Victoria, Princess Royal," married at eighteen 
to the Crown Prince of Germany, " Unser Fritz," 
is the plainest but cleverest of the Queen's daugh- 
ters, a woman of remarkable mind which Bunsen 
helped to train. She has very original and inde- 
pendent ideas, and is a philosophical writer. It is 
said that she hates Bismarck and that when she be- 
comes Empress his power will be ended. She was 



1 66 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

a grandmother at thirty-eight, and has brought up 
her own daughters with the same industrious sever- 
ity which marked her own youth. 

The Princess Alice, the most lovable, was mar- 
ried at nineteen to Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, 
and died in 1878. She has left us the records of 
her sad, but useful life ; a story which painfully 
realizes the old saying, that Happiness is a rare 
guest in Palaces. She was the prettiest of the 
Queen's daughters in 1869. 

The third daughter, Helena, was not pretty, but 
very good and amiable, and was married rather, it 
was said, by her mother's will than her own, to 
Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, a man 
much older than herself. This Prince has never 
been a favorite in England ; but his wife, always 
called the "Princess Christian" by some curious 
law of court etiquette, is a great favorite, from a 
sort of homely " sonsy " good nature and a pro- 
clivity to preside at Fancy Bazaars — the English 
delighting in these semi-familiar glimpses of their 
Princesses. 

Louise, Marchioness of Lome, was older than 




H. R. H. PRINCESS BEATRICE. 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. 169 

her sisters when she married, and was a great 
favorite in London society. She is said to be the 
most agreeable of all the Royal Girls. She is very 
handsome, very clever, and a fine artist in oils. 
Her marriage to a subject, the Marquis of Lome, 
has led to many an awkward position for the hus- 
band, as he cannot walk over the crimson carpet 
which is laid clown alone tor Royalty; and so the 
husband and wife are a dozen times a week re- 
minded of their difference of rank. It was whis- 
pered that this match was hurried on by the well- 
known attachment existing between her and the 
handsome tutor of one of her royal brothers ; but 
Princesses must put their affections in their 
pockets, if they prove troublesome — they do not 
belong to themselves, but to the State. 

Beatrice, the youngest and ninth child of the 
Queen, has been given up by her fond mother 
to the Prince Henry of Battenberg — a marriage 
said to be particularly disagreeable to the strong- 
minded Crown Princess, who has, it is also said, a 
very free way of "speaking her mind" to the 
Queen on many family subjects. 



170 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS 

The Princess Beatrice is thought to have had 
a hard life — secluded and full of work. The 
Queen's nurse, companion, secretary, she has 
had but little of the liberty and but little of the 
pleasure which attended the lives of all her sisters. 
She was supposed to have loved the unfortunate 
Prince Imperial who was killed in Zululand ; and 
the young Duke of Geneva, the Duke of Baden, 
Prince Louis of Battenberg, and her brother-in-law, 
Louis of Hesse, (a very poor character,) have all 
aspired to her hand. 

But whatever have been the rejections of this 
very superior Royal Girl, she has hidden them 
behind a proud pale face, has done her duty un- 
complainingly, has devoted herself untiringly to 
study, to music, the sciences and the arts. She 
has astonished the cleverest men by her mental 
ability, and in an artistic way she has gained a 
creditable place by her " Birthday Book." Al- 
though she was always dressed very simply when 
" off work," she is said to be fond of old lace, 
jewels, and of brocade and velvet. She herself 
says that she has a " Queen Elizabeth fondness for 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. l j I 

fine clothes." She encourages Ireland by order- 
ing many Irish poplins and all her linen from Irish 
shops. Her titles are Beatrice Marie Feodore, 
Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, Duchess of 
Saxony, Member of the Royal Order of Victoria 
and Albert First Class, Lady of the Order of the 
Imperial Crown of India, and of the Royal Red 
Cross, Member of the Russian Order of St. Cath- 
erine, and "Dame Chevaliere " of St. John of 
Jerusalem. What a proud array ! 

Yet this many-titled Princess on her visit to 
Aix-les-Bains, with the Queen, in 1884, showed 
all the modesty, the timidity almost, of a young 
country girl. The seclusion and the habit of rev- 
erence in which a Princess is bred, is conducive to 
this quiet and self-repressed manner. But to her 
masseuse, Charlotte, a Savoyard peasant who had 
been in her service (when she tried the baths a few 
years ago), she was all sweetness and kindness. 
She went with her to see her little black-eyed 
grandchild, and gave the baby a cloak wrought by 
her own hands. When she took walks in the old 
stone villages, where the little children still wear 



172 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

the long black robes and white caps which we see 
in the pictures of Rembrandt, she took in her 
pocket little gold hearts and crosses on velvet 
ribbons — a decoration dear to the Savoyard — to 
give them in return for a glass of milk, and she 
had tops and penknives for the boys. They were 
not royal gifts, but they showed a good heart and 
a thorough breeding — that politeness which does 
not overwhelm one, but which encourages. It was 
a picture to see her with her Royal mother. She 
seemed to be listening, watching, breathing for 
the Queen; not in a fussy and irritating manner, 
but with the most genuine consideration. She 
would steal her hand into that of the Queen in 
church, hand her a fan, pull up her shawl, give her 
a cordial little smile. 

She has made perhaps the least ambitious match 
of all the sisters, for Prince Henry of Battenberg 
is the son of a morganatic marriage and was an 
officer in a Prussian regiment, his pay only a few 
hundred dollars a year ! But he is an intelligent, 
scholarly, well-behaved young Prince, a man of 
ambition and force of character. Let us hope that 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. 1 73 

he may be worthy of the Royal Girl who has set 
all other girls such an example of the noblest of 
virtues — daughterly devotion. 

The Princesses, properly attended by ladies-in- 
waiting, have been allowed to go to the houses of 
the Duke of Sutherland and the Duke of West- 
minster to balls and dinners, also to some other 
noble houses. They have danced, played lawn 
tennis, and have at Balmoral and Osborne House 
led the lives of happy gay girls, always however 
severely under the restrictions of rank. They all 
have had tine physical training. They can shoot, 
row, give a good pull at a salmon, direct the fly- 
ing arrow, send the lawn tennis ball straight, use 
the modelling tool and the graver as well as wield 
the paint brush and the pencil, and are free and 
fearless riders. 

Their duties have been principally to their Royal 
mother. They always stand near her at the Pres- 
entations, and are present with her at the Opening 
of Parliament. The description given by General 
Grant of his dinner at Windsor was, that he did 
not sit next the Queen as he had expected, but 



174 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

that the Princess Beatrice sat between them. The 
Duke of Edinburgh sat on the other side of his 
Royal mother, separating her from Mrs. Grant. 
The Queen talked across the Prince and Princess 
to her guests. 

Whatever else these Royal Girls think, they be- 
lieve the Prince of Wales to be infallible. " Wales " 
said this, or did that — it is enough. He is most 
beloved, most revered by all of them — and then 
— he will be their King! It must have cost the 
Princess Beatrice a greal deal to marry, not hav- 
ing his good favor. He perhaps thought that the 
youngest daughter of the Queen, the peerless 
Beatrice, should have made a better match. The 
Prince has noble manners, full of reverence for 
character, intellect and age. " When I feel dis- 
l to blame His Royal Highness for frivolity," 
said an English lady, " I am always disarmed by 
his courtesy to old Lady Sophia Macnamara" — 
who is a lady-in-waiting to the Queen. 

One of the privileges of being an American, in 
Europe, is this ; any one who is respectable and who 
can command the attention of his Minister, can be 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. 175 

presented at Court. This is not a pleasure which 
is at the beck and call of young girls of any coun- 
try but our own. Certain grades of society are 
absolutely excluded in Europe on account of mere 
hereditary prejudice against certain professions 
and occupations from ever being presented at any 
Court. 

But on arriving in London an American girl is 
almost sure, if she wishes it, and her mother or 
chaperon knows how to achieve it, to have the 
honor of kissing the Queen's hand — and a very 
beautiful little hand it is. If the young lady's 
mother has been presented, then there is no trouble 
at all. The mother has but to write a note to the 
Lord Chamberlain informing him of her intention 
to be present at the next I )ra\ving-Room, and 
mentioning her desire to present her daughter. 
The Lord Chamberlain sends her two cards which 
she must fill out on the vacant spaces with the de- 
sired information— name and address— and must 
sign them with her own name. These cards 
should be left at the Lord Chamberlain's office 
within three or four days of that on which the 



176 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Drawing-Room is to be held, in order that the list 
of the names of ladies to be presented may be 
duly submitted for Her Majesty's approval. Two 
other cards must be obtained from the Lord Cham- 
berlain's office the day previous to the Drawing- 
Room which must be filled in according to the 
form of the statements required — the name of the 
lady presented and the name of the lady by whom 
the presentation is to be made, and these cards are 
taken to the Palace on the day of the Drawing- 
Room by the lady who is presented, and are given 
by her — the one to the page in the ante-room, 
and the other to the usher at the entrance of the 
Throne-Room, by whom it is handed to the Lord 
Chamberlain who then announces the names to 
Her Majesty. 

If the young lady who desires to be presented 
has no mother, or if her mother has not been pre- 
sented, or does not wish to go to Court, she must 
depend upon the wife of her Minister, or on the 
friendship of some lady at the English Court. 

The dress prescribed for this ceremonial is al- 
ways low necked, with a long train, three or four 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. 






yards long. For debutantes this dress must be 
white. A girl wears two white feathers in her 
hair and a white tulle veil or lace lappets. She 
can have her whole dress made for her in Paris or 
London, by the Court dressmaker, and afterwards 
it will make her two dresses. 

Drawing-Rooms are held generally about two 
o'clock. The Queen stays in the Throne-Room 
only an hour when the lovely gracious Princess of 
Wales takes her place. As both ladies, and all 
the Royal Princesses stand, it is very fatiguing to 
them. And it is enormously fatiguing to the per- 
sons presented. 

On passing through the ante-room crowded with 
ladies in full dress — a splendid sight — the train 
of her dress, which she has carried over her arm 
and which makes her very nervous is let down and 
a gentleman in attendance spreads it out for her 
and she walks into the adjoining apartment to the 
presence of Royalty. 

The Queen, a little woman in black, with a long 
white veil, and splendid jewels, the Order of the 
Garter crossing her breast from right to left, stands 



I78 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

surrounded by her handsome group of daughters 
and at her right hand the Princess of Wales who 
is a very stately handsome woman and makes a 
fine figure on these occasions, as everywhere. 

The lady presented kisses the Queen's hand. 
She has already removed her own glove in the 
ante-room and she places her own hand beneath 
that of Her Majesty. She curtesies deeply while 
kissing hands. When the Princess of Wales takes 
Her Majesty's place at a Drawing-Room a lady on 
ntation would not kiss her hand but would 
curtesy. American girls should learn to curtesy 
well, as it is the universal form of salutation 
abroad. 

v comes the tug of war ! How to get out of 
the Royal presence without treacling on one's train, 
stumbling and falling — that is the question! A 
lady must leave " the presence " stepping backward, 
from curtesy to curtesy, facing the Royal party, 
making her exit from the apartment. She finds 
a friendly usher has cared for her train, and has 
placed it over her arm as she leaves the room. 

Generally this presentation entitles the pre- 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. 



79 



sentee to an invitation to either of the State Balls 
or Concerts given at Buckingham Palace during 
the season ; still this is not invariably the case. 

Ladies who have been presented do not leave a 
card, but they drive to Buckingham Palace and re- 
cord their names in Her Majesty's visiting book. 
They must, if the Princess of Wales holds the 
Drawing-Room, drive to Marlboro House and 
write their names in her book. 

Thus it will be seen what etiquette and cere- 
mony "doth hedge a queen." 

But this is not " going to Court." A Court is 
a reception held by Her Majesty, and persons 
attend it by command of Her Majesty only. One 
or two Courts are held each year, generally be- 
fore Easter. The leading members of the aris- 
tocracy, the diplomatic body, the Premier, and 
Members of the Cabinet are invited. It is the 
Queen's private party. Very few Americans are 
ever invited to this English Court. 

Now it may not happen to many an American 
girl to be asked to Windsor Castle, but it has hap- 
pened to some ; she may be asked there to dine. 



180 R0V AND ROYAL COURTS. 

The Royal dinner parties are formed on a dif- 
ferent pattern from private ones, inasmuch as the 
hostess arrives last. All the invited -nests as- 
semble in the long drawing-room at eight o'clock; 
a few minutes afterwards the Queen and the Prin- 
rice enter. This is as it was in 1SS3-4. 

The Queen walks around and speaks to her 
guests. She then precedes them into the I 
dining-room which is magnificent, with high vaulted 
roof, pictures, gilding and grandeur, a gold service 
on the table — indeed the display of -old plate 
at Windsor is marvellous and deserves a separate 
chapter. She seats herself, with one of her chil- 
dren on either side; the guests follow according 
to rank. 

Now how does the Queen invite us to dinner 5 
A Roval Messenger is sent with the note, written 
by Sir Henry Ponsonby, or by some other gentle- 
man-in-waiting, who tells the guest that the Queen 
is pleased to command his presence at dinner, on 
such a day, at Windsor Castle. All other invita- 
tions must make way before this; this is a Royal 
Command. 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. l8l 

As we have said, Royalty is always punctual. 
The. Queen forgives any crime sooner than that of 
being kept waiting. The Prince and Princess of 
Wales, the other members of the family, are punc- 
tual to the minute. At Balmoral she insists rigidly 
upon the eight o'clock breakfast, and fresh break- 
fasts are not ordered for sleepy after-arrivals. 

How our English cousins abuse us for our lack 
of punctuality, and the light manner in which we 
treat dinner invitations ! An American gentleman 
long resident in London complains bitterly. He 
says he gets up a fine dinner for his country peo- 
ple, he invites some distinguished persons to meet 
them, and five minutes before dinner he gets a 
letter, running somewhat in this fashion: "So 
sorry, but have just came in from Whitby, very 
tired — cannot come to dinner; will drop in some 
other day." 

Now as dinner is an Englishman's religion, as 
he regards an acceptance to a dinner party as 
sacred, so sacred that it has been said he should 
go if he is alive, and if he dies suddenly he should 
appoint some one to go in his place in his will — 



ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

what do they think of us Americans? Simply that 
we arc very queer people. 

But to return to the Royal dinner party. Those 
who know the Queen well, say that she is very 
agreeable in her own house. It is etiquette to allow 
her to start the subject of conversation. She, and 
she alone, must take the initiative — but after that 
she likes to hear her guests talking around her. A 
lady who had lived twenty-five years near her, the 
wife of one of her chaplains, said of Her Majesty 
that her conversation was always agreeable ; that 
she was fond of humor and had a hearty laugh, 
that she, however, had a keen sense of her personal 
dignity — and that if she thought any one was 
infringing it, she drew up her small figure and her 
lip curled ! 

Sir Arthur Helps, however, told a different story. 
Sitting low down the table, he describes the mem- 
bers of the household as chatting and laughing, 
when the Queen — looking grimly at them — re- 
marked, "We are not amused ! " which must have 
had a cooling effect. 

A' Aix-les-Bains, where the Queen was supposed 



ROYAL GIRLS OF ENGLAND. 183 

to be incognito, this same royal state was kept up, 
as to the consideration with which she was treated. 
She would send for an official or a distinguished 
Doctor, to visit her, lead the conversation, and sug- 
gest by rising when it was time for them to depart. 

Like all Royalties, the Princesses of England 
all write a beautiful letter. The Queen is said to 
be very particular in the matter of writing letters 
of condolence. 

There is a great sense of the value of a note in 
England. If an American girl writes a pretty note 
expressing thanks for civilities offered to her all 
the family call on her and thank her for her polite- 
ness. It is to be feared that in this latter piece of 
good breeding we are behind our English cousins. 
An elegant epistolary style, a fine handwriting, 
the ease and flow of correspondence — all this is 
a part of the careful education of English girls. 
An English woman writes and receives notes all 
day long and it is absolutely an art ; her plain 
strong, cream-colored or gray paper, her sealing 
wax and faultless seal, the address, the superscrip- 
tion, the date — all are matters of consideration. 



184 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

No American girl who respects herself will annoy 
her Minister or her friends on the subject of a 
presentation at Court. If she sends in her name, 
and tries the dignified and proper means, and suc- 
ceeds, all is well. But if she fail, as she may be- 
cause of a pressure on his very few permissions, 
she should not blame him. Mr. Motley, Mr. 
Pier pont, General Dix, Mr. Lowell, Mr. Astor, 
had doubtless many stories to tell of their disaf- 
fected fellow countrywomen who have wished to 
be presented but who have been disappointed. 

But the Court of England has seen some very 
good specimens of American girls. Miss Harriet 
Lane was a great favorite there when her uncle 
Mr. Buchanan was Minister, and the Queen and 
the Princesses speak highly of American beauty. 
The daughters of Mr. Motley were much liked at 
Windsor, and we could enumerate many other 
instances of well-bred and well-received American 
girls. Would that we had no story to tell of vul- 
gar, gushing, ill-bred girls ! of those who have dis- 
graced the name by fast, or loud, or undignified 
conduct. 



THOSE ROYAL GIRLS AT SANDRINGHAM. 

r | MiERE was a picture displayed in London, in 
■*• June, 1880, which gave great pleasure to 
loyal Londoners, and to all who like to see the 
amiable side of Royalty. It was that of the Prin- 
cess of Wales with her three daughters, their Royal 
Highnesses the Princesses Louise, Victoria, and 
Maud, together with the Princess, Mary Adelaide, 
of Cambridge, a cousin of the Queen, now Duchess 
of Teck, with her children one of whom is said to 
be the prettiest royal maiden in Europe, and rep- 
resented them as they attended at a special Floral 
Service held at Berkeley Chapel. The church was 
overflowing with a congregation of children, each 
child presenting a bouquet of flowers at the altar 
rails until the whole chancel was filled with a mass 
of rare blossoms. 



1 86 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

The effect of the slow altar music, the current 
of sweet young faces, and the fragrance and beauty 
of the flowers, at this Service was most impressive. 
Some of the children were flushed with excitement, 
others pale with nervousness, while many assumed 
a calmness and dignity which was almost amus- 
ing. The Service included a Children's Litany, 
and at its conclusion the Rev. T. Teignmouth 
Shore delivered an address from the text, " The 
flowers appear on earth, and the time of singing birds 
has eotne" After the Service the flowers were 
taken to hospitals for sick children, the little Prin- 
cesses being allowed to drive to the London Hospi- 
tal to leave their flowers, all London looking on. 

All England is interested in the Royal Girls at 
Sandringham, the children of their future King. 
No American, until he sees it, can realize what 
Royalty signifies to a loyal Englishman. It means 
country, home, and the safety of his own children. 
He sees in these young girls the reflex of his own 
beloved daughters growing up about him, and the 
children who assisted at the Flower Service, a 
beautiful ceremony, will all always feel that they 



THOSE ROYAL GIRLS AT SANDRINGHAM. 187 

have an acquaintance with these Royal Girls, 
whom they see with their beautiful mother flashing 
by in the Royal carriages. The English people 
know the Princess of Wales to be a very sensible 
mother as well as a most gracious lady. Even the 
English Radicals can discover nothing to find fault 
with in the Princess of Wales, and during her 
visit in Ireland she won the warm hearts of the 
Irish. 

The eldest daughter of the Prince of Wales is 
named Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar. She 
was born February 20, 1867. Victoria Alexandra 
Olga Marie comes next, born July 6, 1868, and the 
youngest Princess, Maude Charlotte Marie Victo- 
ria, was born in November, 1869 ; so they are 
very near of an age, and the eldest then nineteen, 
was the oldest bridesmaid at the wedding of her 
Royal Aunt Beatrice. 

What has been the home life of these children 
"born in the purple " do you ask? In the house- 
hold of a great Prince, there are of course servants 
and servants. The little baby has a nurse, and an 
under-nurse, and a dresser, and two other attend- 



1 88 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

ants. She is carefully watched and a bulletin of 
her health sent daily to the Queen, and a thousand 
great ladies and noble lords are interested in the 
announcement of her baby ailments. A Duchess 
makes a low curtesy when she enters the Royal 
Nursery, to the unconscious little thing ; and as 
the children grow up they are treated by all, out- 
side of their nearest kin, as if they were something 
better than human clay. It is, to an American, a 
surprising sight to see this perpetual bending of 
the knee to a little child or a youth. 

It is due to the Prince of Wales to say that he 
has seen the danger of this homage, and adulation, 
this over-worship, and he is trying to arrest its effect 
in the education of his children. He provides them 
with simple pleasures, environs them, as far as pos- 
sible, with rural life. He romps and plays with 
them, he lets them follow and peep in at the grand 
dinners; they play with the Queen far more freely 
than her own children were permitted to do. Lady 
Ely, who is a very intimate friend of the Queen 
and always taking care of her, declares that she is 
frightened when the young grandchildren come to 











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fift 

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H R. H LOUISE, OF WALE- 



THOSE ROYAL GIRLS AT SANDRINGHAM. 191 

see the Queen, for after their first deep curtesy 
they all "lay hold of grandmamma" and pull her 
about. She describes the Princess Maude as 
most like the Queen, and naturally, a great friend 
of her august relative, as " they see themselves in 
each other's eyes." They like to go to the Tower, 
"like any other little girls," and were great friends 
with Jumbo, the famous elephant who was killed 
in this country. Indeed, so much did they like 
Jumbo, that Princess Maude, who is said to inherit 
a great deal of her Grandma's authoritative dispo- 
sition, wrote an autograph letter to the owner of 
Jumbo, forbidding his selling her favorite beast to 
"the American." 

The Princesses have lived largely at the coun- 
try estate at Sandringham, preferring it to the more 
courtly state of things at Marlborough House. All 
English people have an unaffected love of the 
country and of animals. All English ladies like to 
go out with their dogs and horses, and their donkey 
carts, and their children, into the beautiful woods 
all carpeted with wild flowers. Never were there 
such primroses and purple hyacinths and violets, as 



192 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

in the woods about Sandringham. Here these 
Royal children have been free to frolic, and here 
they have been allowed to go and see the cottagers 
and carry them comforts, and to help their mother 
establish some clean comfortable homes for her 
poor folk, down at Newton, where she has a school 
and church for the laborers on the estate. They 
are very fond too of visiting the Southdowns and 
Devons, and the pigs, and the champion sheep, for 
the Prince is a model farmer, and the young Prin- 
cesses and Princes are very fond of the rustic pic- 
nics at the houses of the farmers. They have 
been trained to be horsemen and horsewomen, 
like the Queen's own family. They have been used 
to the saddle always. They follow their mother 
in her rambles on their ponies ; owing to a lame 
knee the Princess rides on the " wrong side of the 
saddle," as we should say. They follow the hounds 
twice a week. Then they have special pets to 
enjoy and to care for. They have a delightful pair 
of tigers and two elephants, all their own, which 
the Prince brought home from India, and they have 
grouse preserves, and pouter pigeons and no end 



THOSE ROYAL GIRLS AT SANDRINGHAM. 193 

of dogs. With all this, plain dressing and plain 
living is the rule, and there does seem to be every 
chance that these Royal young people may grow 
up with natural, fine, unfettered natures, if such a 
thing can be made possible in a Royal house- 
hold. 

They have always kept early hours, being up at 
five o'clock in summer, and dressed in flannel 
suits for calisthenics. They breakfast on plain 
food and have an early dinner at two. They are 
very carefully taught in music, and required to 
obey their governess. They have a talent for lan- 
guages, and enjoy going to see their grandmother 
in Denmark, because they can talk " Danish." 
Royal girls never go to school of course, but they 
have no end of teachers, and lessons. Charming 
as are the Prince and Princess with their children, 
they are by no means indulgent. When Prince 
George was reputed as neglecting his studies at the 
naval school, the Prince sent word that he was to 
be disgraced, exactly like any other student, if he 
fell behind. 

A lady who had lived long at Windsor de- 



194 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

scribes the daily life of these young Royal Girls 
as very much like that of other people, except that 
they are far more industrious, kept more closely up to 
fifteen ; at that age they are allowed a glimpse of 
the magnificent life which is all around them, are 
thenceforth trained carefully in etiquette and the 
observances of royal courtesy. Presently they are 
allowed to go to the Royal dinner-table, then to a 
Drawing Room, and so on. Each is always accom- 
panied by her governess, later on by her companion 
who is generally French. 

The children of the Princess have always been 
allowed to come in to afternoon tea at Sandringham 
to be petted by the guests and to listen to an 
account of the day's sport ; and both father and 
mother used often to be found in company with 
the children at their lessons or their sports. When 
General Grant was in England, there was a great 
trouble raised about his rank. As an ex- Presi- 
dent, he had no rank. The Prince of Wales 
frankly wrote to Mr. Pierrepont our Minister, that 
we gave an ex-President no rank, and how could 
he ? Yet he wished to be most polite to the great 




THE PRINCESSES VICTORIA AND MAUD, OF WALES. 



THOSE ROYAL GIRLS AT SANDRINGHAM. 197 

soldier whom he admired, and he asked him to 
dinner. The Emperor of Brazil was at the dinner ; 
it would not do in that circle to have any doubt as 
to precedence before such a Royalty as that. So 
when General Grant arrived, the Prince was in the 
ante-room playing with his children, as if by acci- 
dent, and he stayed there some time, talking with 
the General and Mrs. Grant and introducing the 
children, and then the American guests walked on 
into the Grand room. They did not see the Prince or 
Princess again until twenty minutes later, when the 
Royal pair appeared, walking down the room 
escorting the Emperor and Empress. Nor did they 
see or speak to them again until they went away, 
when the Princess appeared in the ante-room and 
bade good-by to Mrs. Grant. This will present 
some idea of the difficulties of dinner-srivimr in 
England where everybody is seated according to 
rank. It shows the good heart of the Prince of 
Wales that he received General Grant into the 
pleasant circle of his children before assuming that 
necessary, that inevitable court etiquette which 
bound him to take in the Empress of Brazil, nor 



198 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

seem to see the modest soldier who held no rank 
until he was read}- to smoke after dinner. 

The ladies who have been nearest the Queen 
have always liked the Prince of Wales, who was a 
very amiable boy, and this trait seems to have 
aded to his children; the old laborers have 
many a pretty story of how Albert Victor Christian 
Edward, who if he lives will ascend the throne as 
Edward vn., remembered them all with little 
when he came home from his three years cruise; 
and they tell how the Princess Louise, she of the 
gentle heart, sorrowing over the death of a pet bird, 
concluded to hallow her grief by giving each little 
cottager a pair of her best canaries, and she carried 
them to each cottage with her own hands. They 
tell of the escapades of the boys and of the gentle- 
ness of the girls, with that loyalty and pleasure 
which shows that there is a genuine love and pleas- 
ure in their devotion to the " Master " as they call 
the Prince, and to his gracious lovely kindly wife. 
As the elder girls have grown to be young ladies, 
there has a sweet dignity taken the place of their 
girlish rather romping spirit. Princess Louise of 



THOSE ROYAL GIRLS AT SANDRINGHAM. 1 99 

Wales is quite old enough, according to Queen 
Victoria's ethics, to be married. It is said she is 
betrothed to Prince Oscar of Sweden, but the 
Princess of Wales has held tenderly to her eldest 
and still begs for a few more years of her delightful 
companionship. This eldest princess has the most 
talent, it is said, Victoria the most energy and " tem- 
per" — she is a great favorite with her father — 
while Maud is the prettiest and most clever. None 
of her children are so beautiful as the Princess her- 
self ; but they are fair, clean, healthy-looking young 
Anglo-Saxons, and the effect of her charm is upon 
them. She has had them taught all the useful arts, 
and likes to sit and sew with them. Probably very 
few such women as the Princessof Wales has ever 
been lifted into " the great white light which beats 
upon a throne." Without being intellectual, she 
seems to have all the gifts and graces and has 
brought up her young brood with remarkable skill. 
The young Princesses are considered young 
ladies when they reach the age of "confirmation." 
This occurs usually when they are sixteen, and 
then they are given jewelry suitable to their age, 



200 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

wear long dresses, have the hair dressed close to 
the head, are allowed to come to dinner with their 
parents, and to indulge in the pleasures proper to 
their age. All through their youth they associate 
with the children of the higher nobility, and on 
occasion of a birthday, or any festivity, are allowed 
to pay visits. 

Of course a visit of a Royal personage to any 
house is always an occasion of ceremony, although 
the geniality and sociability of the Prince and 
Princess of Wales, makes this honor much less 
onerous than it was in the early days of the Queen 
who made "Royal Pi ."' The noblemen 

who are asked, with their families, to Marlborough 
House, are privileged to invite the Prince and 
Princess, and the circle of guests invited to meet 
them is always laid before his Royal Highness. It 
is not considered etiquette to invite those who are 
unknown to his Royal Highness, unless they are 
foreigners of distinction and repute. Sometimes 
the Prince suggests who shall be invited. 

When a Royal visit is paid to a country-house it 
usually commences on Tuesday and lasts until 



THOSE ROYAL GIRLS AT SANDRINGHAM. 201 

Saturday, and a programme is arranged as fol- 
lows : Wednesday and Thursday the best coverts 
arc to be shot, Friday a lawn meet, if possible, and 
a hunt breakfast, and a ball either Thursday oi 
Friday evening, as the case may be. A suite of 
rooms is specially prepared for the Royal guests 
with a boudoir for the Princess, and a sitting-room 
for the Prince. The host meets his guests at the 
railway station with carriages for the Royal partv, 
and the hostess and ladies staying in the house 
receive the " Royalties " in the hall. The Prince 
and Princess shake hands with the hostess, and 
with those with whom they are acquainted; the 
others curtesy, or bow. It rather depends upon 
the length of the journey and the consequent 
fatigue of the Princess, whether she has tea in her 
own apartment or in that of her hostess. She is 
always asked which. When the Royal visitors 
enter the drawing-room a few minutes before din- 
ner is served, the assembled guests rise and re- 
main standing until Royalty is seated. If dinner 
is announced immediately the party proceeds — 
the host preceding with the Princess, the hostess 



202 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

following with the Prince. On leaving the dining- 
room the hostess bows to the Princess, the ladies 
remain standing until the Princess has passed; 
then follow to the drawing-room and remain stand- 
in-- until Royalty is seated. It is not etiquette to 
addre>s the Prince and Princess unless first 
addressed by them, although this etiquette is very 
much relaxed by the easy-going Prince. 

If the Prince desires to dance with any lady 
present at the ball given him in a country house 
his equerry would inform her of his wish and con- 
duet her to him. In town when a ball is given to 
meet the Prince and Princess of Wales, it is cus- 
tomary to submit the ball-list to them for their 
approval and to place a certain number of invita- 
tions at their disposal. 

With this etiquette and attention and state and 
formality will the Royal Girls of Sandringham be 
treated all their lives. No wonder that Royalties 
sometimes like to retire to quiet corners where 
they are not known, and where they can enjoy an 
incognito. 

The first public appearance of the young Prin- 



THOSE ROYAL GIRLS AT SANDRINGHAM. 203 

cesses was at the wedding of Princess Beatrice, 
where we read that the group of bridesmaids was 
charming. The two eldest were Princess Louise 
of Wales and Princess Irene of Hesse (daughter 
of the Princess Alice). They wore their hair in 
simple plaits at the back of the head, the other 
eight more youthful nieces of the bride, wore theirs 
in long cascades down their back, each fine cheva- 
lure being tied with a simple ribbon bow. The 
dresses of the bridesmaids were chosen for them 
by the Princess of Wales, and were models of sim- 
plicity. There were ten of these Royal Girls, rang- 
ing from nineteen down to seven, all grandchildren 
of the Queen. Their dresses were of palest ivory 
mousselin de soie, embroidered all over in a small 
pattern, not a fragment of ribbon about them. 
This soft fabric was made over soft Duchesse satin 
with just a kilting round the edge scarcely discern- 
ible through eight flounces of Mechlin lace with 
an orange blossom pattern. The scarves were 
very neatly folded round the hips, and fell behind 
in graceful, but not bouffant drapery. The sleeves 
were very pretty, made of lengths of the lace and 



204 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

finished off below the elbow by a single frill and 
niching. The little children, instead of the pointed 
corsages, had square high-necked waists, and 
scarves. 

The bridegroom's present to each of the Prin- 
3 was a small enamelled brooch with a mon- 
ogram of his own and his wife's initials. 



XI. 



SOME ROYAL GIRLS OF GERMANY. 

r I ^IIE Emperor and Empress of Germany have 
-*- passed their golden wedding, and they see 
before and behind them a long procession of Royal 
Girls. The}- have, like Queen Victoria, several 
great-grandchildren, and have lived, like her, to 
•• put their ear to the confessional of posterity.' 1 

Almost every Royal Family in Europe boasts a 
German Princess as mother, sister, or bride. 
The late Empress of Russia was one. She was 
Maximikenne Wilhelmine Augusta Sophie Marie, 
daughter of Louis n., Grand Duke of Hesse. She 
was born in 1824. She was married to Alex- 
ander 11. ( the murdered Czar) in 1841, admitted 
to the Greek Church under the name of Marie 
Alexandrovna, and her husband succeeded to the 
throne in 1855; she died June 3, 1880. She was 
205 



206 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

a woman of great culture, and of religious fanati- 
cism. She never recovered from the death of her 
son the Czarovitch Nicolas, at Cannes in 1S65, 
and sorrow followed her always. Meeting an 
American gentleman, in 1855, she amazed him by 
her command of English; he said to her, " Your 
Majesty speaks it better than i do." 

She replied, " I was a German Princess, and I 
had to learn Russian. After that everything was 
easy, and beside that I was taught four languages 
from my cradle." 

All German Princesses are expected to marry 
crowned heads ; therefore their education is - 
cially cosmopolitan. The late Duchesse d" Orleans, 
mother of the Count de Paris, was a Princess of 
Mecklenburg, and a book of her letters, written to 
her tutor, was most admirable and worth looking 
into as an elucidation of what German Princesses 
ought to learn. Fontenelle*s book, A Plurality of 
Worlds, a volume of astronomical conversations, 
was written for a German Princess. Professor 
Euler wrote a book on mathematics for another 
German Princess. 



SOME ROYAL GIRLS OF GERMANY. 207 

The House of Hohenzollern, now on the throne, 
has always been distinguished for the excellence 
of its women. The mother of the present Em- 
peror, the beautiful Queen Louise who answered 
Napoleon with such sweetness when he offered 
her a rose that he determined to give her back 
her Fortress of Magdeburg, is still the idol of the 
Prussians. 

The Empress of Germany, now a very old woman, 
is trundled about in a chair, but she has still 
ardent friends, passionate admirers, and bitter 
detractors, so we can be assured that she has a 
great deal of character. She is learned and lit- 
erary. She has always been a good woman. Her 
heart is excellent. Her want of tact (or as her 
friends put it, her scorn of diplomacy) has, how- 
ever, always interfered with her popularity. She 
had but one daughter, the Grand Duchesse de 
Baden. 

Her son, the Crown Prince, married the Princess 
Royal of England who, as we have said before, is 
a woman of universal attainments. She writes po- 
litical memoirs, keeps up a correspondence with 



2o8 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

philosophers, is a sculptor, a painter, composes 
sonnets, makes architectural plans, has "ideas." 
A recent writer in The Magazine of Arl s.: 
her: " Having studied like a student, the Crown 
Princess now paints as an artist. The powi 

Royal have long been acknowledged 
rmany, upon the art of which country she 
lias had great and lasting influence. In i860 she 
was < Member of the Berlin Academy, 

where she has constantly exhibited. Paintin 
mirably, as she does, in landscape, portraiture, and 
still-life, it is perhaps in her portraits that .she ex- 
She dislikes society, and occupies herself 
much with the in politics. She is 

the mother of many children, and will be Empress 
of Germany. She and the great Bismarck are .it 
sword's points, and it is said that she and her royal 
mother-in-law do not always approve of each other. 
But she is a good wife and mother, and goes of! 
on sketching tours to Italy, with her daughter, whom 
she brings up very simply, after the fashion of her 
own Royal mother, Queen Victoria. 

The Prince William, her oldest son, has married 



SOME RuVAL GIRLS OF GERMANY. 2O0 

an exceedingly interesting German Princess. He 
is intelligent, brave, hot-headed, but with a "heart 
of gold," sympathetic, impulsive, vivacious, popu- 
lar with all classes. The German people say of 
him that he is the reproduction of his beloved 
great-great-grandmother, the Queen Louise of 
Prussia. lie is the most successful of the Hohen- 
zollerns, and more popular than his scholarly father, 
the Crown Prince, who, it is said, has cold manners, 
and cannot readily come t<> a decision, and is 
thought to be too much under the rule of his wife, 
the dominant Princess Victoria of England. So it 
comes about that the Crown Prince and Princess 
of Germany already are less talked of than their 
young son and daughter-in-law, who is the Princess 
Augusta Victoria Amelia Louise Marie Constance, 
a Princess of Schleswig-Holstein, of that disin- 
herited branch whose honors all went to the King 
of Denmark. She is a true little German house- 
wife, was brought up in poverty and retirement, 
though a grand-niece of Queen Victoria, but her 
marriage was one of real affection, and such a 
Princess is exactly the woman the Germans love. 



2IO \1. GIRLS \\l> ROYAL COURTS. 

If the German Royal Family were to be deprived 
of its inheritance (which does not look probable 
at this moment ), the Crown Prince declares that 
he could earn his living by his skill as a turner, 
while that popular eldest son of his is an excellent 
amateur carpenter. The Princess Augusta Louise 
Marie Constance could cook admirably for them, 
while doubtless her Royal mother-in-law, Victoria 
of England, could teach the arts ami the sciences 
and the philosophies for the whole family. 

The Crown Prince of Germany and his wife live 
either at Berlin or Potsdam. The eldest of their 
daughters, Princess Victoria Charlotte of Prussia, 
is married to the heir <>f the Grand Duke of S.txe- 
Meiningen. She is a very interesting and clever 
woman, and highly educated, and a great favor- 
ite with her Royal grandmother, Queen Victoria. 
These Royal Girls, and their cousins, the daugh- 
ters of the Princess Alice of Hesse, have received 
the same self-denying and assiduous education 
which was given to their Royal mothers before 
them. The Princess Alice of Hesse was so de- 
voted a mother, as you know, that she absolutely 



SOME ROYAL GIRLS OF GERMANY. 211 

killed herself nursing one of her children through 
diphtheria. Her marriage was not happy, nor has 
the marriage of her daughter, the Grand Duchess 
Sergius, proved happy. This young woman (Prin- 
cess Elizabeth of Hesse ) has just sued for a 
separation, her husband having heaped upon her 
insults of the gravest nature. She is fair, winning, 
gifted, the most brilliant and accomplished of all 
the Queen's grandchildren, with beauty of so fragile 
and delicate a type that they call her a "crowned 
Ophelia" She has become an authoress. 

Her mother, the late lamented Princess Alice, 
offended the people of Hesse-Darmstadt by her 
remarkable economy, and her observance of the 
English Sunday. She would not allow the opera 
played in Darmstadt on Sunday, to the great 
vexation of the citizens and also of thousands of 
Frankforters who used weekly to arrive in the city 
( for the sake of the excellent opera ) by the 
Sunday afternoon train. In spite of her noble 
beneficence, she rigidly abstained from expending 
her English-paid revenue upon the Germans; it 
was regularly placed in a London bank, where it 



2 12 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

remained for her daughters. Perhaps realizing 
whal a worthless husband she had, she chose to thus 
provide for her daughters. The Princess Royal 
of England, Crown Princess of Germany, of whom 
we have already spoken as a woman of ideas, 
shares, it is thought, in the advanced opinions of 
the German philosophers — the Princess Alice 
certainly did — yet her daughters are all bapt 
and confirmed in the Church, German Lutheran, 
and have in their visits to England the instructions 
<il" Bishops of the English Church. They are all 
very fond of sketching, of horseback exercise, 
and are prodigious walkers. None of them are 
very handsome, but all pretty blonde girls. 

The imperial court of Berlin is stiff, formal 
and abounding with etiquette. Vet Americans 
are received there with gn md there 

is but little difficulty in being presented. This 
is owing to the fact that we have a large and 
warm sympathy with the German nation in the 
matter of universal liberty, and through our 
scholars and musicians. We have also been very 
happy in our ministers there. Mr. Bancroft won 



SOME ROYAL GIRLS OF GERMANY. 213 

the affections of the Emperor, and received from 
him his portrait. The large American Colony 
living at Berlin and Dresden arc often allowed 
to come to Court and to join in the Court fes- 
tivities. 

But the Empress does not admit any strangers 
to her intimacy. She gives grand concerts, every 
Thursday in Lent, to which society is invited in 
turns, but she is simply wheeled in, and wheeled 
out, in her invalid chair. Vet she likes society, 
and cannot dispense with it. She has five or six 
persons to pass the evenings at the palace five 
or six times a week, and the Emperor always 
drops in. 

But there is a Royal Girl amongst these German 
Princesses wlio deserves an especial mention. As 
the daughter of the blind King of Hanover, her 
devotion to her father caused remark even in a 
family who have always loved their relatives. After 
his death, this high-born lady, cousin to Queen 
Victoria, announced her intention to marry the 
Baron von Panel Rammingen, which marriage 
gave great offence to the German connections. 



214 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

The history of this love affair which is full of 
romance was this : For many years the bridegroom 
was aide-de-camp and private secretary >f the hue 
blind King G ' Hanover, to whom he 

devoted himself with the tenderness of a woman, 
sharing with the Princess Frederica the most con- 
stant watchfulness over the poor blind, helpless 
monarch who was one of the victims of Bismarck's 
pitiless policy when he devised a "united Ger- 
many." It was while preforming this labor of love 
that the affection between him and the Pri 
commenced. She refused many brilliant alliances, 
and he man)- flattering offers of service and posi- 
tion. The Baron von Panel Rammingen was for 
some time a student of the colle burg, and 

he had a strong belief in the dynasty of the house 
of Hanover. For the loyalty of his devotion he 

impeached for high treason by the Prussian 
authorities. He cannot enter any portion of the 
German territories without being subject to ar- 
rest. Queen Victoria, however, powerfully advo- 

I the marriage of the devoted Frederica to the 
man of her choice, the proscribed Baron, and the 



SOME ROYAL GIRLS OF GERMANY. 215 

wedding took place at Windsor Castle. The Queen 
gave her India shawls, jewels, silver and a mag- 
nificent wedding dress of silver brocade, the flounce 
and veil of Irish lace. The Princess and her 
Baron live at Coburg and are very happy on til- 
teen thousand a year. 

Another equally independent Royal Girl is the 

Princess Pauline of VYiirtemberg, who is related to 

all the Royal families of Europe. She fell in love 

with a young physician. Dr. Willem, who was in 

attendance on the Dowager Duchess of Carlsruhe 

in Upper Silesia. The KingofWurtemberg, after 

vain remonstran led to allow her to marry 

the man of her choice on condition of her assuming 

the name and title of Fraulein von Kirkbach, and 

she was immediately dropped from the role of 

Royalties, and is a- effectually banished from 

Royal circles as if she had committed a great 

crime. But she is said to be very happy. 

In America, where we always marry for love, 
or ought to, this ostracism which follows a woman 
of high rank who marries beneath her station is 
hard to understand, but if we once see a Royal 



2l6 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Court, we comprehend the power of old-world 
etiquette. 

A recent writer on Royalty says that nothing 
strikes a stranger more than the " German quality 
of the British Royal family. The Queen has only 
had three English ancestors in four hundred years. 
Her children look like Germans, speak German in 
the family, speak English with a German accent. 
Their ideas of their own consequence are German, 
and their etiquette is that of a German Court. '' 

So when we go back to Germany and find an 
English Princess at the head of affairs we see that 
Royalty is merely i network of one family. Yet 
the German nation over which this English Prin- 
cess will soon be called to reign is a very different 
country from England. She will have to face a 
number of elements — the Socialistic, the Ro- 
mantic, the Musical, the Warlike, and the Learned 
Germans — metaphysical philosophers — and also 
a very curious society just below the Court circles 
of the professors, the army officers, the judges, 
and lawyers, and the officers of the government, 
who are homely in the extreme, socially. 



SOME ROYAL GIRLS OF GERMANY. 217 

There seem many peculiarities, to us and to the 
student of elegant manners all over the world, in 
the German family. They will invite you to supper 
of cold venison and a salad, with stewed cherries 
and cheese. But the young girl of the family sits 
down and plays beautifully on the piano, and then 
her father talks learnedly of Wagner, of politics, 
of Bismarck, of Shakespeare, of Goethe or of 
Emmanuel Kant. It is the country of plain living 
and high thinking, although the Royal life at 
Berlin is of itself, of course, splendid. The mili- 
tary reviews are unsurpassed in Europe, yet the 
daily life of the officers is plain in the extreme. 

A very pretty story is told of the nuptials of the 
young Princess Augusta Victoria ( the little Ger- 
man housewife) and Prince William. She wore 
a wreath of myrtle leaves and blossoms, myrtle 
planted by the beloved Queen Louise of Prussia 
seventy-five years ago. It was suggested to the 
young bride that of the hymn to be sung in the 
chapel a verse should be omitted, because of its 
allusion to evil days ; but she said no, that neither 
she nor Prince Frederic William expected or 



2l8 ROYAL TJRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

desired to always rest on roses, but were willing 
to meet whatever trials God sent them. Her com- 
mands were obeyed and the verse was sung : 

If a hard lot doth await us 
Give us strength to bear it, Jesus I 
Grant that we in worst of days 
No complaint of burdens raise. 

This charming Princess has four children; they 
are, of course, the great-grandchildren of the Em- 
peror, who is said by all who see him to be the 
most wonderful old man in all the world, the most 
popular King among his people. Apart from his 
military successes, he is amiable, benevolent, and 
paternal ; he effaces himself behind Bismarck in 
everything but in military matters. 

It is strange that none of the ladies of his family, 
his Empress, his daughter-in-law, or his grand- 
daughter, like Bismarck who has made for them 
their great Empire. 



XII. 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 



IN our reviews of the different Courts of Europe, 
we have been neglectful, perhaps, of France, 
where have lived and reigned some of the most 
notable women of history. The Salic law, which 
was designed to prevent women from reigning in 
France, has been perpetually upset by the dom- 
inant women who have al vays really reigned by 
the influence they have so pronouncedly wielded 
over the men who were the " likeness of a kingly 
crown." " Women, from Fre'degonde to Joseph- 
ine, have protested against this unrighteous law," 
says Arsene Houssaye. 

Perpetually disturbed, the sceptre of Royalty 

perpetually wrested from its hereditary kings, 

France has now no Royal House, excepting those 

Orleans Princes, now in exile. But one alien 

219 



2 20 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

woman, for twenty years, filled the throne of 
Blanche of Castile, with certainly a queenly grace, 
although not born to a throne — Euge'nie, Em- 
press of the French, now a sad and childless 
widow, living in the near neighborhood, in the 
constant companionship of the Queen of England, 
and under her protection. This fact alone should 
prove to the world that Eugenie is entitled to re- 
spect. For no woman in the world is more par- 
ticular as to character than Queen Victoria. 

The story of Eugenie reads like a fairy tale. 
Almost might she say, with Daniel Defoe: "I 
knew too much of the world to expect good of it, 
and have learned to value it too little to be con- 
cerned at tin- evil. I have gone through a life of 
wonders, and am the subject of a vast variety of 
Providences. . . . No man has tasted differ- 
ent fortunes more. ... In the school of 
affliction, I have learnt more philosophy than at 
the Academy." 

\\\ January, 1853, it was announced to the 
French people that their new Emperor, Louis 
Napoleon, intended to marry Eugenie Montijo, a 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 221 

celebrated beauty. It was rumored that the Em- 
peror had sought in vain the hand of more than 
one European Princess, but that his throne, set 
up within a few weeks, was not considered stable 
enough for an eligible connection. The world 
eagerly inquired who was this celebrated beauty 
who was willing to share this splendid but dan- 
gerous elevation. 

Her Lineage was this: The Kirkpatricks of 
Closeburn, in Scotland, had amongst their many 
cousins one Thomas Kirkpatrick, who went late 
in the last century to Sweden ; there he married 
a lady of rank, and went thence to Spain as the 
Swedish consul at Malaga. This gentleman's 
daughter married the Count de Montijo, who suc- 
ceeded to the family honors, as a Crandee of 
Spain, and became the father of Eugenie, and of 
another daughter who became the Duchess of 
Alba — her husband was later Spanish ambassa- 
dor to Paris. This estate of Closeburn in Scot- 
land has derived a magic lustre from the pen of 
Sir Walter Scott, and in The Lord of the Isles owns 
this stanza : 



222 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

Vain Kirkpatrick's bloody dirk, 
Making sure of murder's work ; 

Afterwards in a note, the author describes Kirk- 
patrick of Closeburn seconding Bruce in despatch- 
ing some enemies. The Empress still bears on 
her seal, as one of her quarte rings, the bloody 
dagger of the Kirkpatrick with the motto, " I mak' 
sickeo," or " 1 make sure." It was to the eleva- 
tion of her sister to the high post of Spanish 
Ambassadrice to France, that Eugenie owed her 
own rise. 

Fifteen years after his marriage the Emperor 
Napoleon wrote a pamphlet about his wife, giving 
her credit for all her successes. He says in that, 
" Mademoiselle Montijo was powerfully attracted 
by the early career of Prince Louis. After the 
coup di'tat, she recommended herself to the favor- 
able regard of the President, by offering to place 
her whole fortune at his disposal." When his 
married life was drawing to its close, the Emperor 
wrote of her virtues with enthusiasm : " She was 
pious without being bigoted, well-informed with- 
out being pedantic — she discussed in a charming 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 223 

manner with men of authority, the most difficult 
economical and financial questions. She engaged 
with activity in manifold works of benevolence. 
She had on two occasions exercised the Regency 
with moderation, political tact, and justice." 

We introduce these testimonials from him who 
knew her best, because the character of Euge'nie 
was destined to suffer much at the hands of those 
who knew her least. All Royalty, with the ex- 
ception of the proudest sovereign of them all, was 
against her. The Queen of England and Prince 
Albert early and late were her friends. All of 
aristocratic France was of course against her — a 
Spanish beauty of no lineage that could approxi- 
mate to Royalty elevated to the throne ! She 
became the centre of all sorts of coarse, uncom- 
plimentary epigrams, and her slightest action was 
distorted by the press. She was called " the 
slave of the Priests, the patroness of bull-fights," 
her character was attacked, and, excepting that 
she was an acknowledged beauty and the leader 
of fashion, history of that time has no good word 
for Euge'nie. She was, later on, accused of being 



224 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

the originator of the Mexican treachery toward 
Maximilian, and of the German war. But if she 
had not been a very good wife and mother, had 
she not been amiable and charitable, she would 
have been dethroned long before she was. Eu- 
genie has lived to hear herself defended by the 
very people who were her chief detractors in 
France, and she has warm friends in Paris who 
now tell of her reign as a period fortunate for 
France. 

But to return to her early happiness. In 1S55, 
the Emperor and Empress were invited to visit 
the Queen at Windsor Castle. The splendid suite 
of apartments in which the Rubens, the Zuccarelli 
and the Vandyke rooms are included, wer< 
apart for the Imperial guests. The Queen writes: 
" 1 advanced and embraced the Emperor, who re- 
ceived two salutes from me on either cheek, hav- 
ing first kissed my hand. I next embraced the 
very gentle, graceful, exceedingly nervous Em- 
press." What a moment for Mademoiselle Mon- 
tijo ! No one born in the purple ever looked her 
part better than did Eugenie. The Queen writes 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 225 

further : " She is full of courage and spirit, and yet 
so gentle and with such innocence and enjouement^ 
that the ensemble is charming." One of the Queen's 
ladies writes of her : " Euge'nie was born with the 
grand air. She has majesty in the lines of her 
neck." 

This great visit to England was followed by the 
return visit of the Queen and Prince Albert to 
France, in August. The beautiful city of Paris, 
most admirably fitted for fetes, was decorated 
with banners, flags, Mowers, "inscriptions, illumina- 
tions, and triumphal arches. The Emperor was 
holding royal court at St. Cloud, that historical 
palace now destroyed. The Queen writes : " The 
Empress received us, with the Princess Matilde, 
at the top of the beautiful staircase, which was 
lined with the Cent Gardes. I was bewildered, en- 
chanted, everything was so beautiful." At din- 
ner, she says, "Everything was magnificent, and 
so quiet, and royal" 

So much from Queen Victoria as to the house- 
keeping of Euge'nie ! 

The account of this Royal visit is well worth 



220 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

reading now for its splendors, and perhaps such a 
scene can never occur again in any country. It 
is a vision out of the Arabian Nights. We have 
only space for an allusion to the Empress. "A 
state ball was given at Versailles, of great magnifi- 
cence, and the Royal party drove out from Paris 
accompanied by piqueurs, bearing torches.'' The 
Queen writes: "The Palace looked magnificent. 
It was illuminated entirely with lamps which had 
a charming effect. The staircase, finely lighted 
up and carpeted, looked not like the .staircase we 
had seen a few days before. The Empress met 
us at the top of the staircase, looking like a fairy 
queen or nymph, in a white dress, trimmed with 
branches of grass and diamonds, a beautiful tour 
de corsage of diamonds round the top of her dress, 
and all en riviere, the same around her waist, and 
a corresponding coiffure with her Spanish and 
Portuguese orders. The Emperor said when she 
appeared, ' Comme tu est belle* " 

The Queen describes this ball at Versailles as 
the most magnificent she ever witnessed, and says 
of the supper that four hundred people sat down 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 227 

to little tables, each group presided over by a 
lady, nicely selected, all by the Empress s own 
desire and arrangement. At the Tuileries, the 
Queen said adieu to the Empress " with no small 
emotion" She says after a most flattering account 
of the Emperor's fascination, " The Empress, too, 
has great charm and we were all very fond of 
her." 

The young Prince was born in this happy year, 
and Eugenie became more a favorite with the 
French people. Then followed, as all well re- 
member, the most brilliant and glorious years thai 
ever a beauty passed upon a throne ; then took 
place the two great Expositions at which the world 
assisted, where the beautiful Empress sat or stood 
under a canopy of green velvet embroidered witli 
;' e -olden bees of the Bonapartes, and was driven 
to balls with her carriage illuminated, wearing the 
imperial diamonds. Her many portraits at this 
period give the world evidence of her blonde love- 
liness. 

Eugenie was charitable, and founded many 
asylums in Paris. She was fond of great enter- 



228 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

pris s, and, being a cousin of Monsieur de Les- 
seps, she helped forward his project of the Canal 
at Suez. It was the good fortune of the presenl 
writer to see her at Venice, in 1869, on ner wav 

to the opening of the Grand Canal. She was on 
her own imperial yacht the ./. . in the harbor, 
and was still a very beautiful woman. Victor 
Emmanuel had come to Venice to meet her and 
do her honor. The whole city had been illumin- 
ated in her honor the night before. She, in the 
King's gondola, floated under the RialtO, with an 
endles of gondolas, through all the witch- 

ery of a summer night, through that city of one's 
dreams, the most lovely town on earth, music from 
<»peras which bore all of old Venetian renown — 
/ due Foscari, Otcllo, Marino I-aliaro, resounding 
over the still waters. What did that woman think 
of her destiny that historic night! She, born in a 
quiet Spanish town with no rank to speak of; 
she, Mademoiselle Montijo, had lived to conquer by 
the sheer force of beauty one of the most power- 
ful and most distinguished places in the history 
of the world. 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 229 

She had caused to be made at Venice a cos- 
tume of surpassing beauty, from the pictures of 
Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus. It was cov- 
ered with jewels. In it she appeared at the 
fete given her at the opening of the Suez Canal. 
She departed from Venice on the morning of a 
beautiful October day. 

As her yacht moved slowly out of the harbor, 
kings and princes stood with hats off to do her 
homage. It was her last gala day. 

In another year, came disaster and downfall. 
The Emperor was defeated at Sedan, and the 
Empress escaped, through the interposition of an 
American dentist, the wrath of the infuriated com- 
mune of Paris. 

The great story of her subsequent life and its 
infinite sorrows — the death of her husband, the 
more cruel death of her son, her long weary jour- 
ney to Zululand — is fresh in everyone's memory 
now. The wreck of her once brilliant self, every 
trace of her beauty gone, she leads a secluded 
life, devoted to religious duties and charities. 
Still she is what the world calls "grande dame." 



230 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

The dignified, discrowned, exiled Empress sits 
amid her memories, the " Lady of Vicissitudes," no 
doubt wondering why she "was raised so high, to 
be dropped so low," of less importance as the 
world rates dignities, than when she was simply 
Mademoiselle Montijo. What other woman can 
have had such a chapter of memories ? 

Let us review another darkened life, at which we 
have already glanced —that of the Royal Widow 
of Spain. This lonely woman in sables was once 
a glad young girl. 

When the poor little King of Spain (now dead 
and gone) was almost commanded by his people 
to take another wife, poor Mercedes, his first love, 
being dead, he waited, and deferred, saying he 
should never love again. lie wanted to shut him- 
self up in the Escurial, the most gloomy palace 
in the world. Some one reminded him, at this 
fateful moment, of his old playfellow, when he was 
at the Theresa College, at Vienna. She had been 
a gay and espitglc comrade of his, once running a 
race with him in the imperial park ; he. the young 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 23 1 

King, was on a bicycle, and the young lady on a 
fleet pony, and she got in first. Remembering 
how she romped and tormented him, was a cheer- 
ful recreation for the sad Alfonso, and he wrote 
her a letter. 

Although Christina was very much in love with 
him, she showed a proper spirit and said she 
would not marry him unless she had further op- 
portunities of meeting him and seeing him, and 
she insisted that he should assume the humble 
attitude of a suitor; this was not because she was 
a proud Hapsburg Princess, but because she was 
a loving girl. " If he wants to win me, let him 
come and woo me," she said. However, his mat- 
rimonial agents at Vienna discovered that she 
was trying on Spanish costumes, and that she 
thought they became her mightily, and perhaps 
they wrote this complimentary intelligence to the 
King, and he journeyed toward Vienna. The 
Archduchess Christina was high-spirited, and 
wished to be courted like any heroine of an old- 
fashioned novel. She, however, had been per- 
suaded to journey half-way to meet him ; besides 



232 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

he broke his arm on the journey, which touched 
her proud heart. 

They met at Arcachon. He hastened to the 
Villa Bellegarde, where she and her mother, the 
Archduchess Charles, were Living. He asked for 
a walk in the garden. It was granted them, while 
all the Spanish and Austrian grandees remained 
in the parlor. When Christina reentered the 
room, she advanced to her mother, showing an en- 
gagement ring on her finger, and said in French, 
" I have the honor, Madame, to present to you my 
future husband," and Alfonso gallantly kissed the 
hand of his future mother-in-law. 

Christina and Alfonso were married with high 
pomp at Madrid. The wedding dinner was eaten 
on the vigil of All Souls' Day — and this was con- 
sidered unlucky. She was presented to the Ma- 
drilenos on a high holiday. There were fine dis- 
plays of chivalrous gallantry. She was mistress at 
the Palac,io Real. All the grand rooms which had 
been furnished for poor little Mercedes, her pre- 
decessor, were refurnished for her. An American 
wrote of her : " If Christina's laugh were not pleas- 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 233 

ant and communicative, her hair a golden fleece, 
and her complexion transparent and beautifully 
tinted, she would be plain, for her cheek bones 
are prominent, her nose rltroussi and wide at nos- 
trils, and her mouth too much expanded. She 
has the Magyar taste for external splendor. Her 
court, if she can have her way, will be lively and 
magnificent, which would suit the present gene- 
ration of Grandees. She is a very devout Catholic, 
and expected to remain one. Her voice is good, 
and she can warble with exquisite feeling a senti- 
mental lied, or provoke laughter by her droll ren- 
dering of a comic song. It will be very nice for 
Don Alfonso to have a wife who has a gypsy and 
garfounet side to her character." 

This was written in 1879. Alas, and alas! the 
gay girl so happy, later on so beloved, is now a 
saddened widow, with a distracted kingdom be- 
fore her, of which she is Regent. She is described 
now as tall, slender, aristocratically formed. With- 
out being decidedly intellectual, she is clever. 
With the pride of her Hapsburg race she has 
never made herself popular in Spain. 



234 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

What will be her future, we cannot yet predict. 
She evidently means that her little son shall be 
beloved by his subjects. 

There is another sad Royal Widow at the Court 
of Bavaria, the Queen Mother. She has seen her 
fondest hopes dashed to the ground in the eccen- 
tricity and insanity of her son, the crazy King 
Ludwig, who died so mad a death — the man 
so devoted to Wagner ; you all know the stories 
of his causing operas to be played for himself, 
alone, at midnight, of his causing tremendous 
palaces to be built, for which there was no money 
in the Royal treasury to pay. He was born in the 
Hympenburg Palace, a gloomy old structure, in 
1845. His mother, a Prussian princess, had a 
most uncongenial married life, and he grew up 
delicate, fanciful, dreamy, morbid, and his life 
was a sad and disappointing one to his mother, to 
whom for many years he would scarcely speak. 

It is a common enough reflection, in looking 
back over these details of Royal Households, that 
with all their splendors, they are seldom happy 



TWO ROYAL WIDOWS. 235 

households. Here and there we read of a happy 
marriage amongst them, of a home life which has 
been honest and serene, and, in some families, of 
great virtues. In all instances we find them 
Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses, neces- 
sarily hard-working people — studying, early and 
late, to perfect themselves in languages, music, 
the arts, in court-etiquette, in politics, in state- 
craft, in knowledge of other governments. Royal 
Rulers all know that in this nineteenth century 
their thrones are very slippery places. Assassina- 
tion, dynamite, Communism and " Home Rule " 
are the talismanic words which seem to burn in 
letters of fire on the walls about them: "Mene, 
Mene, TekeltUpharsin." 

To see them on a gala clay with the crowds of 
glittering bayonets about them, to mark their purple 
and fine linen, to admire their magnificent jewels, 
to watch the Queen of England go in state to open 
Parliament, is to witness a great spectacle ; and 
one may say, "Why are certain human beings 
born to such pleasure, honor and distinction, and 
why am I born down in the dust ? " 



236 ROYAL GIRLS AND ROYAL COURTS. 

But we republicans need not envy them. They 
are dancing in chains, all of them. They must be 
careful what they say, do, think, even. With 
Royal Girls — what interrupted destinies, what 
cruel disappointments, what unhappy marriages, 
what a contrast between the desire and the ful- 
filment do we constantly see ! 

In 1884, I saw in a little wooden building on 
the site of the ruined Tuileries, the jewels of the 
Empress Eugenie exposed for sale. Amongst 
them lay two swords ; one had belonged to King 
Charles x., the other to King Louis xvm. There 
was the Regalia of France, the Crown Jewels, far 
finer than those of England. They were to be 
sold to the highest bidder, by the order of the 
President of the Republic of France, the proceeds 
to be given to charity. And the swords were to 
be broken up and sold piecemeal. 

"For fear," said President Grevy, in his mani- 
festo, " that they may become the property of a 
showman." 



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story, has avoided the danger, of sensationalism. — Chicago 
Herald. 



Classified List. — Standard Miscellaneous. 

ENTERTAINMENTS. By Lizzie W. Champney. For 

Concerts, Exhibitions, Parlor Gatherings, Church Festivals, etc. 

i6mo, illustrated, $1.00. 
EVOLUTION OP DODD (The). By William Hawlby 

Smith. Extra cloth, i2mo, $1.00. 

Here is a book which ought to be in the hands of every teacher 
of youth in the country. It is a living, breathing protest against 
certain features of the present school systems, from that of the 
kindergarten to the grammar school. — American Bookseller. 

FIELD, WOOD AND MEADOW RAMBLES. 

How We went Bird's-nesting. By Amanda B. Harris. 

Quarto, beautifully bound, extra cloth, gilt edges, $2.00. 

Tt is written in a pleasant, chatty style, and gives many new and 
interesting facts about the birds who frequent our woods and fields, 
but its greatest charm lies in the manner of telling, and the fine, 
full-page illustrations, scattered profusely through it. — Bookselltv 
and St.it loner, Chicago. 

FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS, AND HOW THEY 

GREW. By Margaret Sidney. Extra cloth binding, 

very elegant die in colors and gold. i2ino, illustrated, $1.50. 

A good title and no mistake, and Margaret Sidney has mad- a 
thoroughly readable and instructive story of which it is the name. 
— The Congregationalist. 
FROM THE HUDSON TO THE NEVA. A boy's 

book. By David Ker. 36 illustrations, 121110, $1.25. 
HALF YEAR AT BRONCKTON. By Margaret 

Sidney. i6mo, illustrated, $1.25. 

An unusually vigorous and life-like story of schoolboy days. 

This bright and earnest book should go into the hands of every 
boy. — B. B. Bulletin. 
HEAVEN'S GATE. A Story of the Forest of Dean. By 

Lawrence Severn. $1.25. 

The story is skilfully told, and the lessons to be drawn from it are 
sufficiently plain without being pointed out.— Boston Transcript 



Classified List. — Standard Miscellaneous. 



KINGS, QUEENS AND BARBARIANS; or 
Seven Historic Ages. By Arthur Gilman. i6mo, 

illustrated, $1.00. 

Familiar talks about history for young folks. 
LORD'S PURSEBEARERS (The) By Hesba Strbt- 

TON. i:mn, c < >tli, illustrated, - 

No one can read it without having his philanthropies quickened 
and hi 1 Pittsburgh. 

MARGIE'S MISSION. By Maris Oliver. Paper, 25015. 

MONEY IN POLITICS. 
A tant S cretaryof the Uniti 

gilt t>>p, 1211V, 51.25. 
This volum( 
lating medium in the Unii m the colonial days to the 

time. 
MRS. HURD'S NIECE. By Ella Farman. i6mo, 
illustrated, paper, 25 e 1 1.50. 

The 1 

There is scarcely a page in it th.it does not carry its lesson, and 
we know of few books which contain s<> much that is really helpful 
5 girls placed in positions whei ral cour- 

icritice are required. —Leader^ Cleveland. 

MY GIRLS. V. I. F. SERIES. By Lida A. Church- 
ill. I2IHO, cloth • 

1 bright and well-written story will be read with genuine 
ire by all lovers of the better class of fiction. — ' 

Evansville, Ind. 

ODYSSEY OF HOMER (The). Done into I 
prose by S. H. 1 I. A., Fellow and I I 

. M. A., late fellow 
of Merton I • beveled and 

gilt, $1.50. 
The reader who takes up this book will find nothing to embarrass 

or mislead, and much to delight him. — B. B. Bulletin. 



Classified List. — Standard Miscellaneous. 
OLD SCHOOLFELLOWS, and WHAT Became 

Of Them. i6mo, illustrated, $1.25. 

OLD OCEAN. By Ernest [ngbrsoll. Very fully and 
finely illustrated. 121110, cloth, ?i.oo. 
The author has made a thorough study of his subject and 

gathered all the material best calculated to instruct his readers. 
rift. 

OUR BUSINESS BOYS. By Rbv. F. E. Clark. 60 cts. 
The book is packed full ul good advice, not only to boys, but 

it applies to young and middle-aged men as well. — G 

Barre, Mass. 

PINE CONES. By Wiius Boyd Allbn. tamo, cloth, 
illustrated, £1.00. 

'.ventures of several wide awake Boston boys and girls in 

Maine during their Christmas vacation. 

PLUCKY BOYS. By the author of "John Halifax, Gentle- 
man." £1.50. 
Girls, as well as boys, will find this a most entertaining 

as a most profitable book to read. — / 

RED LETTER STORIES. 1 , the German 

by Miss Lucy Wi bbi <• k. 60 cts. 
Few more attractive volumes for young people have we seen, 

and in its dainty form, prettily bound and illustrated, it is certain 

to be a prmie favorite. —A 

ROBINSON CRUSOE. B Dbfob. An edition 

tie lux,-, printed on exquisite paper, with sixteen Ulustral 

as STOTHARO, R. A., with an introduction by A 
Dobson. Fac-simile of the frontispiece and title-page of the 
Original edition, original prefaces, extra cloth binding. 51.25. 

ROGET'S THESAURUS : A Treasury of English 
Words and Phrases. Classified and arranged so as to 
facfliate the 1 i ideas and assist in literarj - 

by 1'icter hfARX RoGBT, M. A., 1. K. S. New edition, 
enlarged and improved, partly from the author's notes, and with 
a full Index by John Lewis Roget. Over 200 pages and 30,000 
additions to the origiual work. 8vo, nearly 800 pages, #2.00. 



Classified List. — Standard Miscellaneous. 

ROYAL LOWRIE. A boy's book. By Charlbs R. Tal- 
bot. I 

A grand helpful story foi 
ROYAL LOWRIE'S ' LAST YEAR AT ST. 

OLAVES. By Charlbs. R. Talbot. i6mo, illustrated, 

$1.25. 

A live story fur 1 
SILENT TOM. By N. I. Edson. ($1000 Prize Stories). 
i6mo, lllusti 

The story is Btartling and told with gi 
SO AS BY FIRE. By M \ thor of 

" Fi\ 

»wn by 
trouble, and to inspire them with faith in th 

SOCIAL STUDIES IN ENGLAND, 
-i.oo. 

ind the 
cular cannot fail I 
! 
SOLDIER AND SERVANT. B 1 1 » M Bakbr. 

While the book will prove fascinating to girls, boy read 
h with it, that in the ch; 
Throckmorton, it has something fur them. — 
THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

121110, cloth, illusti 

This is a most excellent story fcr boys and girls. — Brt 
Stand, 
THE MOTHER'S RECORD of the Mental, Moral, 

and Physical Life of Her Child. 
THE PETTIBONE NAME. By M 

$* 25. 

It is a book for our young men and women ; one which we are 
the better for having read — Essex Banner, 



Classified List. — Pansy. 



Each volume \zino, $1.25. 

Cunning Wo 'emeu. Grandpa's Darlings. Mrs. Deane's Way. 

Miss Priscilla Hunter and My Daughter Susan. 

Dr. Deane's Way. What she Said. 

Each volume i2tno, $1.00. 

Five Friends. New Year's Tangles. 

In the Woods and Out. Next Things. 

Mrs Harry Harper's Awakening Pansy's Scrap Book. 
Some young Heroines. 

Each volume i2»io, 75 cents. 
Bernie's White Chil Jessie Wells. 

Couldn't be Bought Mary Barton Abroad. 

'- Journal Si\ little ('.iris. 

ad. That Coy Bob. 

Helen Lester. Two Boys. Pansies. 

'. volume ittmo, 60 cents. 

Hedge Fence (A). Side by Side. 

Gertrude's Diary. Browning Boys. 



QUARTOS. 

Mothers' Boys and Girls Boards, £1.35 : cloth, ^r.75. 
Pansy's Picture Book. Boards, $1.50; cloth, £2.00. 



BOOKS IN SETS. 

The Little Pansy Series. 10 vols., boards, $3.00; cloth, $4.00. 

Half Hoar Library. 8 vols., quarto, boards, 52.80. 

Mothers' Boys and Girls' Library. 12 vols., quarto, boards, $3,001 

The Pansy Primary S. S. Library. 30 vols., $7.50 net. 

The New Pansy Primary Library. 20 vols., $5.00 net. 



Classified List. — Pansy. 



THE PANSY ROOKS. 

There are substantia] reasons for the great popularity <~>f the 
' Pansy Hooks," and foremost among these is their truth to nature 
and to life. The genuineness of the types of character which 
they portray is indeed remarkable. 

" I Ier stories move alternately to laughter and tears." . . . 
" Brimful of the sweetness of evangelical religion." . . . 
" Girl life and character portrayed with rare power." . . . 
"Too much cannot be said of the insight given into the true way 
of studying and using the word of God." . . . These are a 
few quotations from words of praise everywhere spoken. The 
• " may l>e purchased by any Sunday-school without 
hesitation as to their character or acceptability. 

Each volume \imo, JS1.50. 



Chautauqua Girls at Home. 
Christie's Christmas. 

Women. 
Echoing and Re-echoing. 
Endless Chain (An). 
Ester Ried. 

Ester Ried Vet Speaking. 
Four Girls at Chautauqua. 
From different Standpoints. 
Hall in the Grove (The). 
Household Puzzles. 
Interrupted. 
Julia Ried. 
King's Daughter (The). 



Links in Rebecca's Life. 

lomon Smith Looking On. 
Modern Pro] 
Man of the House (The). 
New Graft on the Family Tree (A). 
One Commonplace Day. 
Pocket Measure (The). 
Ruth Erskine's Crosses. 
Randolphs (The). 
Sidney Martin's Christmas. 
Those 1 
Three People. 

• is and his Lamp. 
Wise and Otherwise. 



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